256 Quotes by Henri Matisse

I have been no more than a medium, as it were.

In art, truth and reality begin when one no longer understands what one is doing or what one knows, and when there remains an energy that is all the stronger for being constrained, controlled and compressed.

He who loves, flies, runs, and rejoices; he is free and nothing holds him back.

...for whether we want to or not, we belong to our time and we share in its opinions, its feelings, even its delusions.

I would like to recapture that freshness of vision which is characteristic of extreme youth when all the world is new to it.

My choice of colors does not rest on any scientific theory, it is based on observation, on feeling, on the experience of my sensibility.

Derive happiness in oneself from a good day's work, from illuminating the fog that surrounds us.

For my part I have never avoided the influence of others. I would have considered it cowardice and a lack of sincerity toward myself.

What I dream of is an art of balance, of purity and serenity devoid of troubling or depressing subject matter - a soothing, calming influence on the mind, rather like a good armchair which provides relaxation from physical fatigue.