To any artist, worthy of the name, all in nature is beautiful, because his eyes, fearlessly accepting all exterior truth, read there, as in an open book, all the inner truth.
An artist worthy of the name should express all the truth of nature, not only the exterior truth, but also, and above all, the inner truth.
Art is the pleasure of a spirit that enters nature and discovers that it too has a soul.
There should be no argument in regard to morality in art. There is no morality in nature.
What is commonly called ugliness in nature can in art become full of beauty.
Where did I learn to understand sculpture? In the woods by looking at the trees, along roads by observing the formation of clouds, in the studio by studying the model, everywhere except in the schools.
The sculptor represents the transition from one pose to another he indicates how insensibly the first glides into the second. In his work we still see a part of what was and we discover a part of what is to be.
Man’s naked form belongs to no particular moment in history; it is eternal, and can be looked upon with joy by the people of all ages.
To the artist there is never anything ugly in nature.
The modes of expression of men of genius differ as much as their souls, and it is impossible to say that in some among them, drawing and color are better or worse than in others.
The realities of nature surpass our most ambitious dreams.
There is nothing ugly in art except that which is without character, that is to say, that which offers no outer or inner truth.
Recently I have taken to isolating limbs, the torso. Why am I blamed for it? Why is the head allowed and not portions of the body? Every part of the human figure is expressive.
Sculpture is the art of the hole and the lump.
I have unbounded admiration for the nude. I worship it like a god.
The body always expresses the spirit whose envelope it is. And for him who can see, the nude offers the richest meaning.
True artists are almost the only men who do their work for pleasure.
I choose a block of marble and chop off whatever I don’t need.
Nobody does good to men with impunity.
The only principle in art is to copy what you see. Dealers in aesthetics to the contrary, every other method is fatal.