Marie Bashkirtseff Quotes

To a woman who knows her own mind men can only be a minor consideration.

I was born to be a remarkable woman; it matters little in what way or how. ... I shall be famous or I will die.

Let us love dogs; let us love only dogs! Men and cats are unworthy creatures.

Nothing is ever so good or so bad in reality as it is in the anticipation.

I am the most interesting book of all.

To live, to have so much ambition, to suffer, to cry, to fight and, at the end, forgetfulness ... as if I had never existed.

Art consists precisely in making us admire old stories, charming us with them eternally, as Nature charms with her eternal sun, her ancient earth, and her men built all on the same pattern, and all animated by the same feelings.

Art just consists in making us swallow the commonplaces by charming us eternally.

What am I? Nothing. What would I be? Everything.

When I die my death will be caused by indignation at the stupidity of human nature.

Life, that is Paris! Paris, that is life!

Art ... is as much a source of happiness for the beginner as for the master. One forgets everything in one's work.

I want to live faster, faster, faster! ... I fear that this desire to live always at high pressure is the presage of a short existence. Who knows?

Soul is as necessary in a painting as body.

I long to see everything, to know everything, to learn everything!.

... I will never love, for I should never be loved as I desire to be loved.

They who see only what they wish to see in those around them are very fortunate.

Time is the most terrible, the most discouraging, the most unconquerable of all obstacles, and one that may exist when no other does.

one life would not suffice, mine especially. To touch everything and leave nothing after oneself! Ah! my God! I hope better than that. Ah! I am very cowardly, and under the blow of such a terror I am ready to believe in priests.

The expectation of an unpleasantness is more terrible than the thing itself.

When one misses an opportunity one is apt to fancy that another will never present itself.

To say that my grief will be eternal would be ridiculous - nothing is eternal.