At the beginning of the 20th century, a future great and completely extraordinary man was born in Spain. Salvador Dali - artist, graphic artist, sculptor, director, writer. So many talents fit into one person. But as a child, Dali studied very poorly and grew up as a spoiled child. But the desire to draw appeared in childhood. His paintings delighted and delight us even today. No wonder one of his exhibitions was visited by about 250 million people.
Our selection of quotes and aphorisms, wise sayings by Salvador Dali about art, about himself, about love. Reading them, you understand how unusual a person he was.
Life is harsh... but it is illuminated by the light of eternity
Salvador Dali. Quotes and aphorisms, wise sayings
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Life is harsh... but it is illuminated by the light of eternity.
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Even the great psychologists could not understand where genius ends and madness begins.
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Words exist to confuse. If a person cannot imagine a galloping horse on a tomato, he is an idiot!
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The mistake is from God. So don't try to fix the mistake. On the contrary, try to understand it, penetrate its meaning, and get used to it. And liberation will come.
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A mind without ambition is like a bird without wings.
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No matter what nonsense you spout, there is always a grain of truth in it. The bitter truth.
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Being mediocre, there is no need to go out of your way to prove that you are mediocre. This is already noticeable.
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The poor in spirit are unhappy, for good impulses bind them hand and foot.
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Well, humanity goes into space - so what? What does he need space for when he is not given eternity?
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A person must be accepted as he is: along with all his crap, along with death.
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Submit to what you are not obliged to submit to.
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If you always think, “I am a genius,” you will eventually become a genius.
Only idiots believe that I follow the advice I give to others. Why on earth? I'm completely different from others. Salvador Dali
The artist is not the one who is inspired, but the one who inspires
Salvador Dali. Quotes and aphorisms about art
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The limit of stupidity is to draw an apple as it is. Just draw a worm, tormented by love, and a dancing lobster with castanets, and let elephants flutter over the apple, and you will see for yourself that the apple is superfluous here.
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All I do is damage my paintings. And then I say “I did what I wanted.”
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With art I straighten myself out and infect normal people.
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The artist is not the one who is inspired, but the one who inspires.
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Painting and Dali are not the same thing; as an artist, I do not overestimate myself. It's just that others are so bad that I turned out to be better.
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I saw it and it sunk into my soul, and through my brush it appeared on the canvas. This is painting. And the same thing is love.
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You neglect anatomy, drawing, perspective, all the mathematics of painting and color, so let me remind you that these are signs of laziness rather than genius.
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I'm completely normal. And the one who is abnormal is the one who does not understand my painting, the one who does not like Velasquez, the one who is not interested in what time it is on my smeared dials - they show the exact time.
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When I write, I don’t understand what meaning is contained in my painting. Do not think, however, that it is meaningless! It’s just that it’s so deep, so complex, unintentionally and whimsical that it eludes ordinary logical perception.
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I think that now we are in the Middle Ages, but someday the Renaissance will come.
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I'm decadent. In art, I’m something like camembert cheese: just a little too much, and that’s it. I, the last echo of antiquity, stand on the very edge.
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A work of art does not awaken any feelings in me. Looking at a masterpiece makes me ecstatic about what I can learn. It doesn’t even occur to me to be overwhelmed with emotion.
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Landscape is a state of mind.
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A work of art does not awaken any feelings in me. Looking at a masterpiece makes me ecstatic about what I can learn. It doesn’t even occur to me to be overwhelmed with emotion.
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The artist thinks with drawing.
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It is good taste that is sterile; for an artist there is nothing more harmful than good taste. Take the French - because of their good taste, they have become completely lazy.
I don't like children, animals and universal voting. Salvador Dali
Quotes from Salvador Dali
Prepared by: Dmitry Sirotkin
I present to you a selection of quotes from the Spanish artist Salvador Dali (1904 - 1989).
probably the most eccentric of all artists.
Quotes are grouped by topic: about myself, painting, creativity, art, surrealism, madness, genius, politics, mustache, books, people, Velasquez, money, women, childhood, freedom, mediocrity, watches, time, critics and journalists, taste, death, enemies, religion, history, inventions, feelings, etc.
About Me
Only a few people know what I really am.
Look! Salvador Dali is born. The wind has died down, the sky is clear. The Mediterranean sky is calm, and on its smooth surface the seven rays of the sun sparkle like a rainbow, like on the scales of a fish. This is extremely symbolic.
I think it was no easier for me to be born than for the Creator to create the Universe. At least he then rested, and all the colors of the world fell on me.
Even in early childhood, I acquired the vicious habit of considering myself different from everyone else and behaving differently from other mortals. As it turns out, this is a gold mine!
My father kicked me out of the house. That's when I felt an apple on my head. The story of William Tell repeats itself.
I have always seen what others did not see; but what others saw, I did not see.
I am grateful to fate for two things: for the fact that I am Spanish and for the fact that I am Salvador Dali.
I'm a pervert - a voyeur. But for an artist this is completely normal.
My name is Salvador - the Savior - as a sign that in times of threatening technology and the flourishing mediocrity that we are privileged to endure, I am called to save art from emptiness.
I am arrogant and vicious in many ways. I am an accomplice of anarchy. If I take it, I always sort it out. Everything with me is changeable and everything is unchanged.
Modesty is my natural flaw.
Turning your inner tornness into pleasure is the highest art. And this is done like this: you need to make the world live your life, yearn for your longing. A long time ago, I purely instinctively formulated a life credo: I need to force others to accept my oddities as a given and necessary - and human sympathy will save me from melancholy.
Only idiots believe that I follow the advice I give to others. Why on earth? I'm completely different from others.
I always said that honey is sweeter than blood. And not vice versa!
I wouldn't buy any of my paintings.
I don't take drugs, I am the drug.
Dali is a drug that you can no longer do without.
About painting
Painting is a hand-made color photograph of all possible, super-exquisite, unusual, super-aesthetic examples of specific irrationality.
I saw it and it sunk into my soul and spilled through my brush onto the canvas. This is painting. And the same thing is love.
My painting is life and food, flesh and blood. Don't look for any intelligence or feelings in her.
As for painting, I have one goal: to capture specific images of the Irrational as accurately as possible.
Painting and Dali are not the same thing; as an artist, I do not overestimate myself. It's just that others are so bad that I turned out to be better.
Landscape is a state of mind.
One thing is clear: I hate simplicity in all its forms.
Without Velazquez there would be no French impressionism, without Dali and Gris there is no cubism, without Miro and Dali there is no surrealism or everything that stemmed from it.
Through the centuries, Leonardo da Vinci and I stretch out our hands to each other.
I attacked the violinist and proved to him the superiority of painting over music. He proved it with his boots by trampling the violin.
About creativity
Don't be afraid of perfection. You won't achieve it.
Anyone who does not want to imitate anyone produces nothing.
The artist is not the one who is inspired, but the one who inspires.
The artist thinks with drawing.
For an artist, every touch of a brush to a canvas is a whole life drama.
Looking at bookish people trying to be creative, I would like to say: it would be better if you tortured cats and urinated on the ceiling.
A mosquito that bites into your thigh early in the morning can serve as lightning that will illuminate yet unknown horizons in your skull.
The first person to compare a young girl's cheeks to a rose was probably a poet; the first person to repeat it was probably an idiot.
First, learn to draw and write like the old masters, and only then act at your own discretion - and you will be respected.
When I write, I don’t understand what meaning is contained in my painting. Do not think, however, that it is meaningless! It’s just that it’s so deep, so complex, unintentionally and whimsical that it eludes ordinary logical perception.
By the way, quotes about creativity
About art
Art is a terrible disease, but it’s impossible to live without it yet.
With art I straighten myself out and infect normal people.
Art is not needed at all. I am attracted to useless things. And the more worthless, the stronger.
Dali told me: “Art is the child of orphanhood and melancholy. Others write their lives, I paint pictures.”
I'm decadent. In art, I’m something like camembert cheese: just a little too much, and that’s it. I, the last echo of antiquity, stand on the very edge.
A work of art does not awaken any feelings in me. Looking at a masterpiece makes me ecstatic about what I can learn. It doesn’t even occur to me to be overwhelmed with emotion.
It was necessary to return to tradition both in painting and in everything else. All other paths lead to a dead end. People have already forgotten how to draw, write, and compose poetry. Art is steadily sliding lower and lower and becoming more and more monotonous, because it is oriented towards uniform international models.
More than anything else, I despise Rodin, who sculpted this Thinker. In such a position, not only is it uncomfortable to think, even to shit.
By the way, quotes about art
About surrealism
Surrealism is not a party, not a label, but a unique state of mind, not constrained by slogans or morality. Surrealism is the complete freedom of the human being and the right to dream. I am not a surrealist, I am surrealism.
The difference between the surrealists and me is that the surrealist is me.
I, the highest embodiment of surrealism, follow the tradition of the Spanish mystics.
From an aesthetic point of view, it is completely unacceptable to think that nothing important happened in the Universe with the birth of Dalinism. And how! And isn’t Dalinism itself the only bright spot on the body of the fetid world, for the sake of which the onset of Armageddon is being delayed for some time?
There are literally no number of abstractionists these days.
At one time I said to the surrealists: “If you are really surrealists, if you are such romantics, love this current German romanticism, this surge of the subconscious! Love Hitler! He is madness itself, a vessel pouring out delirium!
About madness
Even the great psychologists could not understand where genius ends and madness begins.
The difference between me and a crazy person is that I'm not crazy.
Madness is very nourishing for me, and it grows from buffoonery. I have never been able to resolve the fatal question: where does pretense end for me and sincerity begin?
Don Quixote was a crazy idealist. I am also a madman, but a Catalan at that, and my madness is not without a commercial streak.
It is not true that Dali's behavior is abnormal. It is anti-normal.
I'm completely normal. And the one who is abnormal is the one who does not understand my painting, the one who does not like Velasquez, the one who is not interested in what time it is on my smeared dials - they show the exact time.
I am the living embodiment of supervised delirium. It is I who keep him under supervision myself. I am delirious, therefore I exist. And moreover: I exist because I am delirious.
About genius
If you always think, “I am a genius,” you will eventually become a genius.
You won't become a genius by playing at being a genius unless you play too hard.
The world will have to make room a little, and the question is whether it will accommodate a genius!
When all the geniuses die, I will be left in splendid isolation.
The peculiarity of my genius is that it comes from the mind. Exactly from the mind.
People wouldn't worry so much if I were a mediocre artist. All great artists have been counterfeited.
You neglect anatomy, drawing, perspective, all the mathematics of painting and color, so let me remind you that these are signs of laziness rather than genius.
Great geniuses always produce mediocre children, and I do not want to be a proof of this rule. I want to leave only myself as a legacy.
About politics
Politics, like a cancer, eats away at poetry.
If a country does not have at least fifty varieties of cheese and good wine, then the country has reached the end of its rope.
Anarchy under a monarchy is the best form of government. The monarch must be the guarantor of anarchy.
I am a monarchist - and the reason for this is Velazquez, and also the crown, a symbol of the four most important virtues: honesty, justice, strength and generosity.
It is difficult to agitate a king for a monarchy.
I'm not a communist, but I have nothing against communism. I respect any beliefs and, above all, those that are incompatible with mine.
By the way, quotes about politics
About the mustache
My mustache keeps growing, as does the power of my imagination.
While everyone is looking at my mustache, I hide behind it and do my job.
My mustache is joyful and full of optimism. They are akin to Velazquez's mustache and are the complete opposite of Nietzsche's mustache.
The shape of the mustache is historically determined. Hitler could not have had any other mustache - only this swastika under his nose.
Communism is steadily deteriorating. Judge for yourself: Marx was unusually hairy, Lenin had a beard and mustache (although not so bushy), Stalin only had a mustache, and Khrushchev didn’t even have that.
About books
Why write long books? The thought must be capacious and stunning!
Everything incomprehensible fascinates me. In particular, books on nuclear physics are mind-blowing texts.
My favorite mentor was Kant, from whom I understood absolutely nothing - and this filled me with pride and satisfaction. The man who wrote such important and useless books was nothing short of an angel!
By the way, quotes about books
About people
A person must be accepted as he is: along with all his crap, along with death.
Tell me, why should a person behave exactly like other people, like a mass, like a crowd?
The poor in spirit are unhappy, for good impulses bind them hand and foot.
Well, humanity goes into space - so what? What does he need space for when he is not given eternity?
By the way, quotes about people
About Velazquez
From Velasquez I learned much more about light, rays, reflections and mirrors than I could have learned from hundreds of weighty scientific books. His canvases are a goldmine of precise, verified solutions.
When they ask me: “What's new?”, I answer: “Velasquez! “And now and ever.”
When people ask me what the difference is between a Velazquez painting and a good photograph, I answer: “Seven million dollars.”
About money
The simplest way to free yourself from the power of gold is to have it in abundance.
I sleep better after receiving large checks.
I have no idea if I'm poor or rich. The wife manages everything. And for me money is mystic.
For me, getting rich is not humiliating, dying under a fence is humiliating.
By the way, quotes about money
About women
Gala is my only muse, my genius and my life, without Gala I am nothing.
It's not worth loving a woman with all your soul. But not loving doesn’t work.
I have never met a woman who is both beautiful and elegant - these are mutually exclusive characteristics.
By the way, quotes about women
About childhood
Childhood is drawn to insects. They are curious, they generate in the soul a craving for violence against oneself and nature. And this is already an incentive for creativity.
At three and a half years old I wanted to become a cook, mind you, a cook, not a cook, at six years old I wanted to be Columbus, at seven - Napoleon, and then my aspirations constantly grew.
By the way, quotes about children
About freedom
Freedom is like spinach - something limp, without bones.
I love the Inquisition! Everything great is done in spite of and, therefore, thanks to lack of freedom. Freedom - if we define it as an aesthetic category - is the embodiment of formlessness, it is amorphism itself.
By the way, quotes about freedom
About mediocrity
Being mediocre, there is no need to go out of your way to prove that you are mediocre. This is already noticeable.
Do not try to cover up your mediocrity with deliberately careless painting - it will reveal itself in the very first stroke.
About the watch
The mechanism was initially my personal enemy, and as for the watch, it was doomed to disintegrate or not exist at all.
Why are your hours running out of time? - they ask me. - But the point is not that they spread! The point is that my watch shows accurate time.
About the time
Don't try to keep up with the times; you can't escape time. All of us, no matter what we do, are inevitably modern.
I think that now we are in the Middle Ages, but someday the Renaissance will come.
I'm getting better over the years.
By the way, quotes about time
About critics and journalists
I don't care at all what critics write. I know that deep down they love my work, but they are afraid to admit it.
I love journalists! They also contribute to the cretinization of the population. And they do a great job with it.
About taste
People usually think that bad taste cannot produce anything worthwhile. In vain.
It is good taste that is sterile; for an artist there is nothing more harmful than good taste. Take the French - because of their good taste, they have become completely lazy.
About death
Death fascinates me with eternity.
I can do so much that I cannot even admit the thought of my own death. It would be too ridiculous. You can't squander your wealth.
About enemies
I throw flowers at my enemies - in a coffin.
If I didn't have enemies, I wouldn't be what I am. But, thank God, there were enough enemies.
I love smart enemies.
About religion
Did you know that the success of any religion is rooted in its mysteries? If everything is explained scientifically, the mystery will disappear...
I'm a Christian and a Catholic, but to be an artist you don't need either.
By the way, quotes about religion
About history
Running ahead of history is much more interesting than describing it.
Next to history, politics is nothing more than an anecdote.
As soon as you talk to me about the French Revolution, I become sick.
About inventions
Masturbation is the greatest invention of mankind since the wheel and fire.
The replacement of axes with guillotines, not to mention the American killing machine, is a whole revolution in consciousness. People voluntarily give themselves to machines, and are dissatisfied with something else.
About feelings
The feeling is banal in nature. This is a lower natural element, a vulgar attribute of everyday life.
When I get overwhelmed by feelings, I turn into a complete idiot.
About training
My studies tried to make me a standard idiot, but I was at least non-standard.
The laughter of the human herd is the nightmare from childhood and school that I have carried with me all my life.
About life
Life is harsh... but it is illuminated by the light of eternity.
I love life obscenely.
By the way, quotes about life
About words
Words exist to confuse.
No matter what nonsense you spout, there is always a grain of truth in it. The bitter truth.
By the way, quotes about words
About a miracle
If we are interested in anything, it is only a miracle.
Magic is not in the things themselves, but in the relationships between ordinary things.
About attracting attention
I had a motto: the main thing is to let people talk about Dali. At worst, let them say well.
It is difficult to attract attention to yourself even for a short time. And I indulged in this activity every day and hour.
About the mind
I'm relatively smart. Very relative.
I don't understand voluntary idiocy.
About the hero
A hero, if he is a real hero, is always on his own. A hero is one thing, a servant is another.
Heroism is my occupation.
About pain
All my life my obsession has been pain, which I wrote countless times.
I have fun while I suffer. This is my long-standing custom.
By the way, quotes about pain
About miscellaneous
Submit to what you are not obliged to submit to.
My memory mixed reality and fiction. For example, one memory is connected with Russia... although I have never been to this country.
I declare with full responsibility: I have never joked, I don’t joke and I don’t intend to joke.
Since I do not possess this or that virtue, compensation is due to me.
The envy of other artists has always served as my thermometer of success.
Fashion is something that can go out of fashion.
Everything I promise, I do - someday. Everything I want comes true - sooner or later.
The mistake is from God. So don't try to fix the mistake. On the contrary, try to understand it, penetrate its meaning, and get used to it. And liberation will come.
According to the law of compensation, the postulate of instability of equilibrium and the principle of heterogeneity, the lack of something ultimately gives rise to a new system of relations.
As we can see, Salvador Dali tried to convey his thoughts in a figurative, intelligible form. Sometimes they look like advertising slogans and are filled with narcissism, but they certainly cannot be called boring.
Quotes about Dali
- G. Dali: To be heard, seen, paid attention, a scandal is required. The brighter, the louder, the better. From childhood, Salvador learned to ask for scandals.
- F.G. Lorca: I behaved like an indecent ass, with you being the best I have. Every minute I understand this more and more clearly and I really regret everything.
- D. Orwell: Imagine now that you have nothing but your own selfishness and dexterity, extending no higher than your elbow, imagine that your true gift is a meticulous, academic, illustrative style of drawing, and your true destiny is to be a textbook illustrator. How can one become Napoleon in this case? There is always only one way out: to fall into vice. Always do things that shock and hurt people. (by the way, quotes from Orwell)
- A. Hitchcock: Dali had a number of strange ideas. For example, he wanted the statue in the frame to crack like an eggshell and ants to crawl out from inside. Below them would be Ingrid Bergman, covered in those ants! It was impossible.
- A. Breton: It must be taken into account that for El Salvador the most important thing was the desire to please the public. This caused him the need to endlessly invent more and more new paradoxes, eclipsing each other.
- Z. Freud: In your painting, I am much more interested in the conscious elements than the unconscious ones. (by the way, quotes from Freud)
- S. King: Well, hello, Dali! Not all the pictures made an impression on me. In many cases, I concluded that I was looking at the work of a talented scoundrel who was simply having a good time. However, some reproductions struck a chord with me, and a few scared me. Tigers swimming over a naked woman leaning back. Flying rose... (by the way, quotes from King)
Next, you can move on to other collections of quotes:
- Picasso quotes
- Van Gogh quotes
- Leonardo da Vinci quotes
- Hemingway quotes
- Saint-Exupery quotes
- Coco Chanel quotes
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