Explore Quotes by Robert Henri

I have heard it very often said that an artist does not need intelligence, that his is the province of the soul

There are mighty few people who think what they think they think.

In certain books—some way in the first few paragraphs you know that you have met a brother.

Beauty is no material thing. Beauty cannot be copied. Beauty is the sensation of pleasure on the mind of the seer. No thing is beautiful. But all things await the sensitive and imaginative mind that may be aroused to pleasurable emotion at sight of them. This is beauty.

There are moments in our lives, there are moments in a day, when we seem to see beyond the usual. Such are the moments of our greatest happiness. Such are the moments of our greatest wisdom.

Let every student enter the school with this advice. No matter how good the school is, his education is in his own hands. All education must be self education.

Find out what you really like if you can. Find out what is really important to you. Then sing your song. You will have something to sing about and your whole heart will be in the singing.

Painting should never look as if it were done with difficulty, however difficult it may actually have been.

By my teaching I hope to inspire you to personal activity and to present your vision.

There is nothing in all the world more beautiful or significant of the laws of the universe than the nude human body.

When we respect the nude, we will no longer have any shame about it.

The artist should have a powerful will. He should be powerfully possessed by one idea

There are pictures that manifest education and there are pictures that manifest love.

The pursuit of happiness is a great activity. One must be open and alive. It is the greatest feat man has to accomplish, and spirits must flow. There must be courage. There are no easy ruts to get into which lead to happiness.

The real artist's work is a surprise to himself.

Art after all is but an extension of language to the expression of sensations too subtle for words.

You can do anything you want to do. What is rare is this actual wanting to do a specific thing: wanting it so much that you are practically blind to all other things, that nothing else will satisfy you.

Don't stop to paint the material, but push on to give the spirit.

You will never draw the sense of a thing unless you are feeling it at the time you work.

Count on big lines to express your ideas.

Realize that a drawing is not a copy. It is a construction in very different materials. A drawing is an invention.