92 Pablo Picasso Quotes

Art, life, and creativity are intrinsically intertwined, shaping our perceptions of the world and our place within it. Pablo Picasso, a legendary artist, epitomised this connection through his groundbreaking work and thought-provoking quotes. Delve into these quotes by Picasso and allow yourself to uncover the genius of an artist who challenged conventional norms.

“Every child is an artist. The problem is how to remain an artist once he grows up.”
“Art washes away from the soul the dust of everyday life.”
“Everything you can imagine is real.”
“The purpose of art is washing the dust of daily life off our souls.”
“Give me a museum and I’ll fill it.”
“Action is the foundational key to all success.”
“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.”
“It took me four years to paint like Raphael, but a lifetime to paint like a child.”
“All children are artists. The problem is how to remain an artist once he grows up.”
“Colors, like features, follow the changes of the emotions.”
“There is no abstract art. You must always start with something. Afterward, you can remove all traces of reality.”
“Computers are useless. They can only give you answers.”
“Bad artists copy. Good artists steal.”
“Inspiration exists, but it has to find you working.”
“To draw, you must close your eyes and sing.”
“Painting is just another way of keeping a diary.”
“Learn the rules like a pro, so you can break them like an artist.”
“Art is the elimination of the unnecessary.”
“It is your work in life that is the ultimate seduction.”
“The chief enemy of creativity is ‘good’ sense.”
“The world today doesn’t make sense, so why should I paint pictures that do?”
“There are painters who transform the sun into a yellow spot, but there are others who, thanks to their art and intelligence, transform a yellow spot into the sun.”
“I paint objects as I think them, not as I see them.”
“We all know that art is not truth. Art is a lie that makes us realize truth.”
“He can who thinks he can, and he can’t who thinks he can’t. This is an inexorable, indisputable law.”
“When I haven’t any blue, I use red.”
“Without great solitude, no serious work is possible.”
“One must act in painting as in life, directly.”
“A picture is not thought out and settled beforehand. While it is being done, it changes as one’s thoughts change.”
“Art is not the application of a canon of beauty but what the instinct and the brain can conceive beyond any canon.”
“I do not seek. I find.”
“If there were only one truth, you couldn’t paint a hundred canvases on the same theme.”
“The urge to destroy is also a creative urge.”
“The meaning of life is to find your gift. The purpose of life is to give it away.”
“An idea is a point of departure and no more. As soon as you elaborate on it, it becomes transformed by thought.”
“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.”
“Only put off until tomorrow what you are willing to die having left undone.”
“Sculpture is the art of the intelligence.”
“I am always doing that which I cannot do, in order that I may learn how to do it.”
“You mustn’t always believe what I say. Questions tempt you to tell lies, particularly when there is no answer.”
“It is personality with a penny’s worth of talent. Error which chances to rise above the commonplace.”
“Art is the lie that enables us to realize the truth.”
“To copy others is necessary, but to copy oneself is pathetic.”
“There is no such thing as ‘pure’ painting or ‘pure’ sculpture.”
“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.”
“Painting is not done to decorate apartments. It is an instrument of war for attack and defense against the enemy.”
“A picture lives a life like a living creature, undergoing changes imposed on us by our life from day to day. This is natural enough, as the picture lives only through the man who is looking at it.”
“I don’t believe in accidents. There are only encounters in history. There are no accidents.”
“What one does is what counts. Not what one had the intention of doing.”
“If I paint a wild horse, you might not see the horse… but surely you will see the wildness!”
“If I don’t have red, I use blue.”
“Sculpture is the best comment that a painter can make on painting.”
“A painter is a man who paints what he sells. An artist, on the other hand, is a man who sells what he paints.”
“There are only two types of women: goddesses and doormats.”
“I’d like to live as a poor man with lots of money.”
“Art is a finger up to the bourgeoisie.”
“The path to youth takes a whole life.”
“When art critics get together, they talk about Form and Structure and Meaning. When artists get together, they talk about where you can buy cheap turpentine.”
“I begin with an idea, and then it becomes something else.”
“I who have been involved with all styles of painting can assure you that the only things that fluctuate are the waves of fashion which carry the snobs and speculators; the number of true connoisseurs remains more or less the same.”
“The more technique you have, the less you have to worry about it. The more technique there is, the less there is.”
“The smell of oil paint has been a continual joy in my life. It means creation to me.”
“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.”
“It is not enough to know your craft – you have to have feeling. Science is all very well, but for us imagination is worth far more.”
“I can hardly understand the importance given to the word ‘research’ in connection with modern painting. In my opinion, to search means nothing in painting. To find is the thing.”
“Art is not made to decorate rooms. It is an offensive weapon in the defense against the enemy.”
“Disciples be damned. It’s not interesting. It’s only the masters that matter. Those who create.”
“What do you think an artist is? An imbecile who only has eyes if he’s a painter, ears if he’s a musician, or a lyre in every chamber of his heart if he’s a poet – or even, if he’s a boxer, only some muscles? Quite the contrary, he is at the same time a political being, constantly alert to the horrifying, passionate or pleasing events in the world, shaping himself completely in their image.”
“Painting is not made to decorate apartments. It’s an offensive and defensive weapon against the enemy.”
“If they took away my paints, I’d use pastels. If they took away my pastels, I’d use crayons. If they took away my crayons, I’d use pencils. If they stripped me bare, I’d use my blood.”
“Painting is stronger than me; it makes me do what it wants.”
“The hidden harmony is better than the obvious.”
“It is not what the artist does that counts, but what he is.”
“The difference between false memories and true ones is the same as for jewels: it is always the false ones that look the most real, the most brilliant.”
“A painting only lives in the eye of the beholder.”
“A good picture, any picture, has to be bristling with razor blades.”
“The artist is a receptacle for emotions derived from anywhere: from the sky, from the earth, from a passing shape, from a spider’s web.”
“One never knows what one is going to do. One starts a painting and then it becomes something quite else. It is remarkable how little the ‘willing’ of the artist intervenes.”
“The works must be conceived with fire in the soul but executed with clinical coolness.”
“An artist must know how to convince others of the truth of his lies.”
“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.”
“Art is made to disturb. Science reassures. There is only one valuable thing in art: the thing you cannot explain.”
“In a museum, one should talk in a whisper, as in a house of ill fame.”
“There’s no such thing as a bad Picasso, but some are less good than others.”
“The creative act lasts but a brief moment, a lightning instant of give-and-take, just long enough for you to level the camera and to trap the fleeting prey in your little box.”
“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.”
“It is your work in life that is your ultimate seduction.”
“The older you get, the stronger the wind gets—and it’s always in your face.”
“A piece of space-dust falls on your head once every day.”
“The genius of Einstein leads to Hiroshima.”
“For my part, I can’t do anything else but what I am doing.”
“To make oneself hated is more difficult than to make oneself loved.”

Disclaimer:

These 92 Pablo Picasso quotes have been gathered from multiple sources, and while we strive for accuracy, translations may vary and the authenticity of some quotes by Picasso could be disputed. Enjoy these insights, but please approach them with an open mind.

92 Pablo Picasso Quotes