The landscape painter must walk in the fields with a humble mind. No arrogant man was ever permitted to see Nature in all her beauty.

My art flatters nobody by imitation; it courts nobody by smoothness, tickles nobody by petiteness... there is no finish in nature.

Whatever may be thought of my art, it is my own; and I would rather possess a freehold, though but a cottage, than live in a palace belonging to another.

Painting is a science, and should be pursued as an inquiry into the laws of nature.

Painting is but another word for feeling.

When I sit down to make a sketch from nature, the first thing I try to do is to forget that I have ever seen a picture.