James Whistler

We look at a painting to know the painter; it's his company we are after, not his skill.

To say of a picture, as is often said in its praise, that it shows great and earnest labour, is to say that it is incomplete and unfit for view.

I maintain that two and two would continue to make four, in spite of the whine of the amateur for three, or the cry of the critic for five.

To say to the painter that Nature is to be taken as she is, is to say to the player that he may sit on the piano.

An artist is not paid for his labor but for his vision.

Art happens-no hovel is safe from it, no prince may depend upon it, the vastest intelligence cannot bring it about.