| 88 Pablo Picasso Quotes and Sayings | Score |
|---|---|
| I am always doing that which I cannot do¸ in order that I may learn how to do it | 78 |
| Action is the foundational key to all success | 77 |
| The chief enemy of creativity is good sense | 76 |
| The more technique you have the less you have to worry about it | 76 |
| One must act in painting as in life¸ directly | 75 |
| Our goals can only be reached through a vehicle of a plan¸ in which we must fervently believe¸ and upon which we must vigorously act. There is no other route to success | 75 |
| My mother said to me¸ "If you are a soldier¸ you will become a general. If you are a monk¸ you will become the Pope". Instead¸ I was a painter¸ and became Picasso | 74 |
| Only put off until tomorrow what you are willing to die having left undone | 74 |
| There is no abstract art. You must always start with something. Afterward you can remove all traces of reality | 74 |
| Others have seen what is and asked why. I have seen what could be and asked why not | 73 |
| You don't make art¸ you find it | 73 |
| Bad artists copy. Good artists steal | 72 |
| Never permit a dichotomy to rule your life¸ a dichotomy in which you hate what you do so you can have pleasure in your spare time. Look for a situation in which your work will give you as much happiness as your spare time | 72 |
| To copy others is necessary¸ but to copy oneself is pathetic | 72 |
| Success is dangerous. One begins to copy oneself¸ and to copy oneself is more dangerous than to copy others. It leads to sterility | 71 |
| You have to have an idea of what you are going to do¸ but it should be a vague idea | 71 |
| Art is the lie that enables us to realize the truth | 70 |
| Art washes away from the soul the dust of everyday life | 69 |
| Disciples be damned. It's not interesting. It's only the masters that matter. Those who create | 69 |
| The artist is a receptacle for emotions that come from all over the place: from the sky¸ from the earth¸ from a scrap of paper¸ from a passing shape¸ from a spider's web | 68 |
| To draw¸ you must close your eyes and sing | 68 |
| Everything you can imagine is real | 67 |
| I paint objects as I think them¸ not as I see them | 67 |
| Painting is a blind man's profession. He paints not what he sees¸ but what he feels¸ what he tells himself about what he has seen | 67 |
| Art is the elimination of the unnecessary | 66 |
| He can who thinks he can¸ and he can't who thinks he can't. This is an inexorable¸ indisputable law | 66 |
| Colors¸ like features¸ follow the changes of the emotions | 65 |
| I begin with an idea and then it becomes something else | 65 |
| Love is the greatest refreshment in life | 65 |
| What might be taken for a precocious genius is the genius of childhood. When the child grows up¸ it disappears without a trace. It may happen that this boy will become a real painter some day¸ or even a great painter. But then he will have to begin everything again¸ from zero | 65 |
| When you start with a portrait and search for a pure form¸ a clear volume¸ through successive eliminations¸ you arrive inevitably at the egg. Likewise¸ starting with the egg and following the same process in reverse¸ one finishes with the portrait | 65 |
| I do not seek. I find | 64 |
| The older you get the stronger the wind gets¸ and it's always in your face | 64 |
| The world today doesn't make sense¸ so why should I paint pictures that do? | 64 |
| To make oneself hated is more difficult than to make oneself loved | 64 |
| All children are artists. The problem is how to remain an artist once he grows up | 63 |
| Every act of creation is first an act of destruction | 63 |
| I have a horror of people who speak about the beautiful. What is the beautiful? One must speak of problems in painting! | 63 |
| It took me four years to paint like Raphael¸ but a lifetime to paint like a child | 63 |
| We must not discriminate between things. Where things are concerned there are no class distinctions. We must pick out what is good for us where we can find it | 63 |
| I don't say everything¸ but I paint everything | 62 |
| All art is erotic | 61 |
| I'd like to live as a poor man with lots of money | 61 |
| Every positive value has its price in negative terms. The genius of Einstein leads to Hiroshima | 60 |
| I don't believe in accidents. There are only encounters in history. There are no accidents | 60 |
| Painting is just another way of keeping a diary | 60 |
| The urge to destroy is also a creative urge | 60 |
| We don't grow older¸ we grow riper | 60 |
| Anything new¸ anything worth doing¸ can't be recognized | 59 |
| An idea is a point of departure and no more. As soon as you elaborate it¸ it becomes transformed by thought | 58 |
| It takes a long time to become young | 58 |
| Work is a necessity for man. Man invented the alarm clock | 58 |
| Are we to paint what's on the face¸ what's inside the face¸ or what's behind it? | 57 |
| God is really only another artist¸ he made the elephant¸ giraffe and cat. He has no real style but keeps trying new ideas | 57 |
| If I paint a wild horse¸ you might not see the horse¸ but surely you will see the wildness! | 57 |
| The hidden harmony is better than the obvious | 57 |
| The people who make art their business are mostly imposters | 57 |
| Art is never chaste. It ought to be forbidden to ignorant innocents¸ never allowed into contact with those not sufficiently prepared. Yes¸ art is dangerous. Where it is chaste¸ it is not art | 56 |
| Every now and then one paints a picture that seems to have opened a door and serves as a stepping stone to other things | 56 |
| Inspiration does exist¸ but it must find you working | 56 |
| Some painters transform the sun into a yellow spot¸ others transform a yellow spot into the sun | 56 |
| We artists are indestructible¸ even in a prison¸ or in a concentration camp¸ I would be almighty in my own world of art¸ even if I had to paint my pictures with my wet tongue on the dusty floor of my cell | 56 |
| What do you think an artist is? He is a political being¸ constantly aware of the heart breaking¸ passionate¸ or delightful things that happen in the world¸ shaping himself completely in their image. Painting is not done to decorate apartments. It is an instrument of war | 56 |
| Give me a museum and I'll fill it | 55 |
| They ought to put out the eyes of painters as they do goldfinches in order that they can sing better | 55 |
| When I die¸ it will be a shipwreck¸ and as when a huge ship sinks¸ many people all around will be sucked down with it | 55 |
| Art is not the application of a canon of beauty but what the instinct and the brain can conceive beyond any canon. When we love a woman we don't start measuring her limbs | 54 |
| If only we could pull out our brain and use only our eyes | 54 |
| One does a whole painting for one peach and people think just the opposite¸ that particular peach is but a detail | 54 |
| People want to find a "meaning" in everything and everyone. That's the disease of our age¸ an age that is anything but practical but believes itself to be more practical than any other age | 54 |
| Sculpture is the best comment that a painter can make on painting | 54 |
| You mustn't always believe what I say. Questions tempt you to tell lies¸ particularly when there is no answer | 54 |
| If there were only one truth¸ you couldn't paint a hundred canvases on the same theme | 53 |
| It is your work in life that is the ultimate seduction | 53 |
| Who sees the human face correctly: the photographer¸ the mirror¸ or the painter? | 53 |
| If all the ways I have been along were marked on a map and joined up with a line¸ it might represent a minotaur | 52 |
| Painting is not made to decorate apartments. It's an offensive and defensive weapon against the enemy | 52 |
| To finish a work? To finish a picture? What nonsense! To finish it means to be through with it¸ to kill it¸ to rid it of its soul¸ to give it its final blow the coup de grace for the painter as well as for the picture | 52 |
| Youth has no age | 52 |
| Is there anything more dangerous than sympathetic understanding? | 51 |
| Why do two colors¸ put one next to the other¸ sing? Can one really explain this? No. Just as one can never learn how to paint | 51 |
| There are only two types of women, goddesses and doormats | 50 |
| If there is something to steal¸ I steal it! | 49 |
| What is a face¸ really? Its own photo? Its make-up? Or is it a face as painted by such or such painter? That which is in front? Inside? Behind? And the rest? Doesn't everyone look at himself in his own particular way? Deformations simply do not exist | 49 |
| Everything is a miracle. It is a miracle that one does not melt in one's bath | 48 |
| Computers are useless. They can only give you answers | 47 |
| Sculpture is the art of the intelligence | 47 |
| Painting is stronger than me¸ it makes me do it's bidding | 46 |








