Caspar David Friedrich Quotes

#1. I am not so weak as to submit to the demands of the age when they go against my convictions. I spin a cocoon around myself; let others do the same. I shall leave it to time to show what will come of it: a brilliant butterfly or maggot.

Caspar David Friedrich

#2. The feelings of another person should never be imposed upon us as a law.

Caspar David Friedrich

#3. A painting which does not take its inspiration from the heart is nothing more than futile juggling.

Caspar David Friedrich

#4. I have to stay alone in order to fully contemplate and feel nature.

Caspar David Friedrich

#5. All authentic art is conceived at a sacred moment and nourished in a blessed hour; an inner impulse creates it, often without the artist being aware of it.

Caspar David Friedrich

#6. When a scene is shrouded in mist, it seems greater, nobler, and heightens the viewers' imaginative powers, increasing expectation -
like a veiled girl. Generally the eye and the imagination are more readily drawn by nebulous distance than by what is perfectly plain for all to see

Caspar David Friedrich

#7. Close your bodily eye, that you may see your picture first with the eye of the spirit. Then bring to light what you have seen in the darkness, that its effect may work back, from without to within.

Caspar David Friedrich

#8. If he sees nothing within, then he should stop painting what is in front of him.

Caspar David Friedrich

#9. The pure, frank sentiments we hold in our hearts are the only truthful sources of art.

Caspar David Friedrich

#10. The eye and fantasy feel more attracted by nebulous distance than by that which is close and distinct in front of us.

Caspar David Friedrich

#11. The divine is everywhere, even in a grain of sand; there I represented it in the reeds.

Caspar David Friedrich

#12. I must stay alone and know that I am alone to contemplate and feel nature in full; I have to surrender myself to what encircles me, I have to merge with my clouds and rocks in order to be what I am. Solitude is indispensible for my dialogue with nature.

Caspar David Friedrich

#13. You call me a misanthrope because I avoid society. You err; I love society. Yet in order not to hate people, I must avoid their company.

Caspar David Friedrich

#14. God is everywhere, in the smallest grain of sand.

Caspar David Friedrich

#15. Just as the pious man prays without speaking a word and the Almighty hearkens unto him, so the artist with true feelings paints and the sensitive man understands and recognizes it.

Caspar David Friedrich

#16. The painter should paint not only what he has in front of him, but also what he sees inside himself.

Caspar David Friedrich

#17. Every true work of art must express a distinct feeling.

Caspar David Friedrich