100+ Art Inspiration Quotes to Spark Creativity & Motivate Your Soul

“Imagination is the beginning of creation. You imagine what you desire, you will what you imagine, and at last, you create what you will.” – George Bernard Shaw

“The artist sees what others only catch a glimpse of.” – Leonardo da Vinci

“To my mind, a painting should be something like a good armchair which provides relaxation and comfort.” – Henri Matisse

“Art enables us to find ourselves and lose ourselves at the same time.” – Thomas Merton

“Creativity takes courage.” – Henri Matisse

“I am driven by two main philosophies: know more today than yesterday, and let the future be filled with explorations.” – Ray Bradbury

“The world always seems brighter when you’ve just made something that wasn’t there before.” – Neil Gaiman

“Every artist was first an amateur.” – Ralph Waldo Emerson

“We don’t make mistakes, just happy little accidents.” – Bob Ross

“Art is the lie that enables us to realize the truth.” – Pablo Picasso

“You can’t use up creativity. The more you use, the more you have.” – Maya Angelou

“A work of art is above all an adventure of the spirit.” – Henri Matisse

“Success is walking from failure to failure with no loss of enthusiasm.” – Winston Churchill

“The greater the artist, the greater the doubt. Perfect confidence is granted to the less talented as a consolation prize.” – Robert Hughes

“I have not failed. I've just found 10,000 ways that won't work.” – Thomas A. Edison

“It’s not the absence of fear, it’s overcoming it. Sometimes you’ve got to blast through and have faith.” – Emma Watson

“Great things are done by a series of small things brought together.” – Vincent van Gogh

“When I hear somebody sigh, ‘Life is hard,’ I am always tempted to ask, ‘Compared to what?’” – Sydney J. Harris

“Do not fear mistakes. There are none.” – Miles Davis

“I’ve learned that courage is not the absence of fear, but the triumph over it.” – Nelson Mandela

“The wound is the place where the light enters you.” – Rumi

“Fall seven times, stand up eight.” – Japanese Proverb

“There is no passion to be found playing small—in settling for a life that is less than the one you are capable of living.” – Nelson Mandela

“Even the darkest night will end and the sun will rise.” – Victor Hugo

“To be yourself in a world that is constantly trying to make you something else is the greatest accomplishment.” – Ralph Waldo Emerson

“Don’t bend; don’t water it down; don’t try to make it logical. You can’t. You have to know your own bone; you have to penetrate to the central kernel of your mystery.” – Martha Graham

“Originality is nothing but judicious imitation.” – Voltaire

“The worst originality is derived from imitating what you think originality looks like.” – Unknown

“If you copy, it means you’re working without inspiration. Inspiration has no copy.” – Paul Rand

“An original idea. That can’t be too hard. The library must be full of them.” – Stephen Fry

“Your truest self shows up when you stop trying to impress others.” – Vironika Tugaleva

“Art is the signature of civilizations.” – Beverly Sills

“You were born an original. Don’t die a copy.” – John Mason

“What makes you different? That’s your strength.” – Sara Blakely

“Authenticity is the daily practice of letting go of who we think we’re supposed to be and embracing who we are.” – Brené Brown

“The most courageous act is still to think for yourself. Aloud.” – Coco Chanel

“Creativity is intelligence having fun.” – Albert Einstein

“Inspiration exists, but it has to find you working.” – Pablo Picasso

“The best way to get ideas is to start doing work.” – Austin Kleon

“Art is not what you see, but what you make others see.” – Edgar Degas

“Diligence is the mother of good fortune.” – Miguel de Cervantes

“Start where you are. Use what you have. Do what you can.” – Arthur Ashe

“The only way to do great work is to love what you do.” – Steve Jobs

“You can’t wait for inspiration. You have to go after it with a club.” – Jack London

“An artist cannot fail; it is a success to be one.” – Charles Horton Cooley

“To draw, you must close your eyes and sing.” – Pablo Picasso

“Creativity is allowing yourself to make mistakes. Art is knowing which ones to keep.” – Scott Adams

“Begin anywhere.” – John Cage

“Beauty is everywhere. You only have to look to see it.” – Bob Ross

“Art disturbs, science reassures.” – Georges Braque

“All beauty is sublime.” – John Keats

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

“There is no definition of beauty, but when you can feel it, it’s obvious.” – Liv Tyler

“Art is the most beautiful of all lies.” – Claude Debussy

“The earth laughs in flowers.” – Ralph Waldo Emerson

“Simplicity is the ultimate sophistication.” – Leonardo da Vinci

“Color is my day-long obsession, joy, and torment.” – Claude Monet

“Art enables us to find ourselves and lose ourselves at the same time.” – Thomas Merton

“What is art? Nature seen through a temperament.” – Emile Zola

“The beautiful is as useful as the ugly.” – Jean Cocteau

“Art is the only way to run away without leaving home.” – Twyla Tharp

“A work of art is the cry of its creator.” – Auguste Rodin

“I don’t paint dreams or nightmares. I paint my own reality.” – Frida Kahlo

“Art is the stored honey of the human soul.” – Theodore Dreiser

“Expression is the only purpose of art.” – Mark Rothko

“Painting is silent poetry, and poetry is painting that speaks.” – Plutarch

“Emotion is the root of form.” – Oskar Kokoschka

“Art should comfort the disturbed and disturb the comfortable.” – Cesar A. Cruz

“I put my heart and soul into my work, and have lost my mind in the process.” – Vincent van Gogh

“Art is the highest form of hope.” – Gerhard Richter

“Feelings are much easier to express than explain.” – Anonymous

“Art is not a thing; it is a way.” – Elbert Hubbard

“The chief enemy of creativity is good sense.” – Pablo Picasso

“Every act of creation is first an act of destruction.” – Pablo Picasso

“If you don’t try anything new, nothing new will happen.” – Frank Zappa

“An essential aspect of creativity is not being afraid to fail.” – Edwin Land

“Innovation distinguishes between a leader and a follower.” – Steve Jobs

“The biggest risk is not taking any risk.” – Mark Zuckerberg

“Art is either plagiarism or revolution.” – Paul Gauguin

“To innovate, you must learn to ignore the naysayers.” – Debbi Fields

“Progress lies not in enhancing what is, but in advancing toward what will be.” – Kahlil Gibran

“What would you attempt to do if you knew you could not fail?” – Robert H. Schuller

“Dare to be naïve.” – Buckminster Fuller

“Safe is risky when it comes to art.” – Seth Godin

“Solitude is the soil in which genius is planted.” – A.C. Benson

“I shut my eyes in order to see.” – Paul Gauguin

“The best thinking has been done in solitude.” – Thomas Edison

“In order to hear the voice within, we must first quiet the noise outside.” – Wayne W. Dyer

“All men’s miseries derive from not being able to sit in a quiet room alone.” – Blaise Pascal

“Loneliness is the poverty of self; solitude is the richness of self.” – May Sarton

“The artist is always beginning. An artist is an explorer.” – Mark Tobey

“Sometimes the silence is all the answer you need.” – Matshona Dhliwayo

“Solitude is where I place my chaos to rest and awaken my inner peace.” – Nikki Rowe

“Reflection is the lamp of the heart.” – Ali ibn Abi Talib

“Without great solitude, no serious work is possible.” – Pablo Picasso

“In silence, we hear the echoes of our soul.” – Unknown

“The purpose of art is washing the dust of daily life off our souls.” – Pablo Picasso

“Art is not what you make, it’s what you make happen.” – Simon McLeary

“The meaning of life is to find your gift. The purpose of life is to give it away.” – Pablo Picasso

“Art should speak to the heart, not just the eye.” – Unknown

“We are here to witness the unfolding of mystery.” – Rainer Maria Rilke

“Your work is going to fill a large part of your life… The only way to do great work is to love what you do.” – Steve Jobs

“Art is the only way to live eternally.” – Gustav Klimt

“The purpose of life is not to be happy. It is to be useful, to be honorable, to be compassionate.” – Ralph Waldo Emerson

“Art enables us to transcend the ordinary.” – Susan Sontag

“Create from the heart, not for the market.” – Unknown

“The world needs your voice. Your story matters.” – Brené Brown

“Art is the most intense mode of individualism that the world has known.” – Oscar Wilde

“Legacy is not leaving something for people. It’s leaving something in people.” – Peter Drucker

“Great artists steal.” – Pablo Picasso

“I don’t make art to be liked. I make art to survive, to remember, to question, to honor.” – Yoko Ono

“Art lives beyond the artist.” – Unknown

“You never know how your work will influence others.” – Hayao Miyazaki

“Influence is like electricity. We don’t see it, but we feel its power.” – Simon Sinek

“The arts carry forward the memory of humanity.” – Yo-Yo Ma

“Every artist was once an amateur influenced by someone greater.” – Unknown

“Your legacy is every life you touch.” – Roy T. Bennett

“What you leave behind is not what is engraved in stone monuments, but what is woven into the lives of others.” – Pericles

“Artists don’t live forever. Their work does.” – Unknown

“Inspire, don’t retire.” – Unknown