Auguste Rodin Quotes - Page 2

The nude alone is well dressed

There should be no argument in regard to morality in art. There is no morality in nature.

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.

The only principle in art is to copy what you see. Dealers in aesthetics to the contrary, every other method is fatal.

I am like a moon that shines on an immense, unknown sea where ships never pass

He who is discouraged after a failure is not a real artist.

It is the artist who is truthful and it is photography which lies, for in reality time does not stop

Mystery is like a kind of atmosphere which bathes the greatest works of the masters.

In art, immorality cannot exist. Art is always sacred.

What is commonly called ugliness in nature can in art become full of beauty.

The realities of nature surpass our most ambitious dreams.

A mediocre man copying nature will never produce a work of art, because he really looks without seeing, and though he may have noted each detail minutely, the result will be flat and without character... the artist on the contrary, sees; that is to say, his eye, grafted on his heart, reads deeply into the bosom of nature.

Mere exactitude, of which photography and moulage [life casting] are the lowest forms, does not inspire feelings.

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.

I know very well that one must fight, for one is often in contradiction to the spirit of the age.

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.

You must always work.

The artist is the confidant of nature, flowers carry on dialogues with him through the graceful bending of their stems and the harmoniously tinted nuances of their blossoms, Every flower has a cordial word which nature directs towards him.

I would have to talk for a year to repeat a single on of my works with words.

The delicate droop of the petals standing out in relief, is like the eyelid of a child.

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.

In front of the model I work with the same will to reproduce truth as if I were making a portrait. I do not correct nature, I incorporate myself into it; it directs me. I can only work with a model. The sight of human forms nourishes and comforts me.

I choose a block of marble and chop off whatever I don't need.

What is drawing? Not once in describing the shape of the mass did I shift my eyes from the model. Why? Because I wanted to be sure that nothing evaded my grasp of it... My objective is to test to what extent my hands already feel what my eyes see.

The body always expresses the spirit whose envelope it is. And for him who can see, the nude offers the richest meaning.