Top 100 Art Quotes (2025 Update)

1. “Art is the elimination of the unnecessary.”

— Pablo Picasso

Also featured in: Aesthetic Quotes, Artist Quotes, Simplicity Quotes

2. “It is through art, and through art only, that we can realise our perfection.”

— Oscar Wilde

Also featured in: Aesthetic Quotes

3. “Beauty perishes in life, but is immortal in art.”

— Leonardo da Vinci

Also featured in: Aesthetic Quotes

4. “It took me four years to paint like Raphael, but a lifetime to paint like a child.”

— Pablo Picasso

Also featured in: Artist Quotes, Painting Quotes

5. “As practice makes perfect, I cannot but make progress; each drawing one makes, each study one paints, is a step forward.”

— Vincent van Gogh

Also featured in: Lifelong Learning Quotes, Artist Quotes, Quotes About Skills

6. “The sculpture is already complete within the marble block, before I start my work. It is already there, I just have to chisel away the superfluous material.”

— Michelangelo

Also featured in: Aesthetic Quotes, Artist Quotes

7. “Paintings have a life of their own that derives from the painter’s soul.”

— Vincent van Gogh

Also featured in: Artist Quotes, Painting Quotes

8. “I am still learning.”

— Michelangelo

Also featured in: Learning Quotes, Short Quotes About Life, Meaningful Quotes, Study Quotes, Lifelong Learning Quotes

9. “Art is never finished, only abandoned.”

— Leonardo da Vinci

Also featured in: Creative Quotes, Painting Quotes

10. “You don’t take a photograph, you make it.”

— Ansel Adams

Also featured in: Famous Quotes, Creative Quotes, Photography Quotes

11. “Art washes away from the soul the dust of everyday life.”

— Pablo Picasso

Also featured in: Meaningful Quotes, Appreciation Quotes, Creative Quotes, Culture Quotes

12. “Music is liquid architecture; Architecture is frozen music.”

— Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

Also featured in: Aesthetic Quotes

13. “A painter should begin every canvas with a wash of black, because all things in nature are dark except where exposed by the light.”

— Leonardo da Vinci

14. “Every block of stone has a statue inside it and it is the task of the sculptor to discover it.”

— Michelangelo

Also featured in: Artist Quotes, Creative Quotes, Genius Quotes

15. “I dream my painting and I paint my dream.”

— Vincent van Gogh

Also featured in: Short Quotes, Quotes About Dreams, Imagination Quotes, Creative Quotes

16. “Painting is poetry that is seen rather than felt, and poetry is painting that is felt rather than seen.”

— Leonardo da Vinci

Also featured in: Creative Quotes

17. “The world doesn't make sense, so why should I paint pictures that do?”

— Pablo Picasso

Also featured in: Imagination Quotes, Creative Quotes

18. “There is no abstract art. You must always start with something. Afterward you can remove all traces of reality.”

— Pablo Picasso

19. “To practice any art, no matter how well or badly, is a way to make your soul grow. So do it.”

— Kurt Vonnegut

Also featured in: Self-Worth Quotes, Fulfillment Quotes, Practice Quotes, Soul Quotes

20. “Without art, the crudeness of reality would make the world unbearable.”

— George Bernard Shaw

Also featured in: Aesthetic Quotes, Culture Quotes

21. “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.”

— Pablo Picasso

Also featured in: Not Giving Up Quotes, Artist Quotes, Creative Quotes

22. “The aim of art is to represent not the outward appearance of things, but their inward significance.”

— Aristotle

Also featured in: Aesthetic Quotes

23. “I am my own muse. I am the subject I know best. The subject I want to better.”

— Frida Kahlo

Also featured in: Identity Quotes, Strong Women Quotes, Artist Quotes, Creative Quotes, Individuality Quotes

24. “Art is what you can get away with.”

— Andy Warhol

25. “The only time I feel alive is when I’m painting.”

— Vincent van Gogh

Also featured in: Fulfillment Quotes, Aesthetic Quotes, Quotes About Feelings

26. “I created a vision of David in my mind and simply carved away everything that was not David.”

— Michelangelo

Also featured in: Aesthetic Quotes, Artist Quotes

27. “Don’t think about making art, just get it done. Let everyone else decide if it’s good or bad, whether they love it or hate it. While they are deciding, make even more art.”

— Andy Warhol

Also featured in: Creativity Quotes, Taking Action Quotes, Practice Quotes, Artist Quotes

28. “Art is not what you see, but what you make others see.”

— Edgar Degas

Also featured in: Artist Quotes, Dance Quotes

29. “I saw the angel in the marble and carved until I set him free.”

— Michelangelo

Also featured in: Aesthetic Quotes, Mastery Quotes, Genius Quotes

30. “Happy painting and God Bless, my friend.”

— Bob Ross

Also featured in: Cute Quotes, Happy Quotes, Artist Quotes

31. “Through education comes understanding. Through understanding comes true appreciation. All children are artists. The problem is how to remain an artist once they grow up.”

— Pablo Picasso

Also featured in: Appreciation Quotes, Quotes About Growing Up

32. “Art is a reflection of God’s creativity, an evidence that we are made in the image of God.”

— Francis Schaeffer

Also featured in: Aesthetic Quotes

33. “In drawing, nothing is better than the first attempt.”

— Pablo Picasso

Also featured in: Artist Quotes, Firsts Quotes

34. “In spite of everything I shall rise again: I will take up my pencil, which I have forsaken in my great discouragement, and I will go on with my drawing.”

— Vincent van Gogh

Also featured in: Perseverance Quotes, Recovery Quotes, Survival Quotes, Depression Quotes

35. “Art is the queen of all sciences communicating knowledge to all the generations of the world.”

— Leonardo da Vinci

36. “The idea is there locked inside. All you have to do is remove the excess stone.”

— Michelangelo

37. “There are painters who transform the sun to a yellow spot, but there are others who with the help of their art and their intelligence, transform a yellow spot into sun.”

— Pablo Picasso

Also featured in: Creativity Quotes, Artist Quotes, Painting Quotes

38. “Without music, life would be a mistake.”

— Friedrich Nietzsche

Also featured in: Music Quotes, Meaningful Quotes, Quality Quotes, Artist Quotes

39. “Music expresses that which cannot be put into words and that which cannot remain silent.”

— Victor Hugo

Also featured in: Music Quotes, Emotion Quotes, Philosophy Quotes, Beautiful Quotes, Culture Quotes

40. “Good artists copy. Great artists steal.”

— Pablo Picasso

Also featured in: Greatness Quotes, Creative Quotes

41. “Photography is the story I fail to put into words.”

— Destin Sparks

Also featured in: Storytelling Quotes, Photography Quotes, Making Memories Quotes

42. “There is a crack in everything, that’s how the light gets in.”

— Leonard Cohen

Also featured in: Life Quotes, Music Quotes, Famous Quotes, Sunday Inspirational Quotes, Important Quotes

43. “If music be the food of love, play on.”

— William Shakespeare

Also featured in: Music Quotes, Relationship Quotes, Positive Short Quotes, Love You Quotes

44. “Music expresses that which cannot be said and on which it is impossible to be silent.”

— Victor Hugo

Also featured in: Music Quotes, Famous Quotes, Emotion Quotes, Beautiful Quotes, Quotes About Feelings

45. “Don’t only practice your art, but force your way into its secrets; art deserves that, for it and knowledge can raise man to the Divine.”

— Ludwig van Beethoven

Also featured in: Wisdom Quotes, Mastery Quotes

46. “Music is the universal language of mankind.”

— Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

Also featured in: Music Quotes, Quotes About Humanity, Appreciation Quotes, Culture Quotes

47. “The important thing is to create. Nothing else matters; creation is all.”

— Pablo Picasso

Also featured in: Creativity Quotes, Aesthetic Quotes, Artist Quotes, Creative Quotes

48. “The artist sees what others only catch a glimpse of.”

— Leonardo da Vinci

Also featured in: Famous Quotes, Artist Quotes, Creative Quotes

49. “Have no fear of perfection – you’ll never reach it.”

— Salvador Dalí

Also featured in: Creative Quotes, Genius Quotes

50. “Photography is a love affair with life.”

— Burk Uzzle

Also featured in: Sweet Quotes, Passion Quotes, Appreciation Quotes, Photography Quotes