Claude Monet Quotes
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It seems to me that when I see nature I see it ready-made, completely written - but then, try to do it!
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It is a tragedy that we live in a world where physical courage is so common, and moral courage is so rare.
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I work at my garden all the time and with love. What I need most are flowers, always. My heart is forever in Giverny.
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Take clear water with grass waving at the bottom. It's wonderful to look at, but to try to paint it is enough to make one insane.
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I have made tremendous efforts to work in a darker register and express the sinister and tragic quality of the place, given my natural tendency to work in light and pale tones.
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No one but myself knows the anxiety I go through and the trouble I give myself to finish paintings which do not satisfy me and seem to please so very few others.
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One is too taken up with all that one sees and hears in Paris, however strong one is, and what I do here [in Etretat] will at least have the merit of being unlike anyone else, at least I believe so, because it will simply be the expression of what I, and only I, have felt.
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I have once more taken up things that can't be done: water with grasses weaving on the bottom. But I'm always tackling that sort of thing!
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Every day I discover more and more beautiful things. It’s enough to drive one mad. I have such a desire to do everything, my head is bursting with it.
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My life has been nothing but a failure.
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Apart from painting and gardening, I'm not good at anything.
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Never, even as a child, would I bend to a rule.
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All of a sudden I had the revelation of how enchanting my pond was.
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I let a good many mistakes show through when fixing my sensations. It will always be the same and this is what makes me despair.
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No one is an artist unless he carries his picture in his head before painting it, and is sure of his method and composition.
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I am very depressed and deeply disgusted with painting. It is really a continual torture.
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Gardening was something I learned in my youth when I was unhappy. I perhaps owe having become a painter to flowers.
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I would love to do orange and lemon trees silhouetted against the blue sea, but I cannot find them the way I want them.
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My heart is forever in Giverny.
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My rejection at the Salon brought an end to my hesitation [to settle in Paris] since after this failure I can no longer claim to cope... alas, that fatal rejection has virtually taken the bread out of my mouth.
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I know well enough in advance that you'll find my paintings perfect. I know that if they are exhibited they'll be a great success, but I couldn't be more indifferent to it since I know they are bad, I'm certain of it.
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I've always refused requests even from friends to employ a technique I know nothing about.
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It really is appallingly difficult to do something which is complete in every respect, and I think most people are content with mere approximations. Well, my dear friend, I intend to battle on, scrape off and start again.
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I am following Nature without being able to grasp her, I perhaps owe having become a painter to flowers.