Peter Paul Rubens Quotes

"My talent is such that no undertaking, however vast in size... has ever surpassed my courage."

"Every child has the spirit of creation. The rubbish of life often exterminates the spirit through plague and a souls own wretchedness."

"Painting a young maiden is similar to cavorting with great abandon. It is the finest refreshment."

"My passion comes from the heavens, not from earthly musings."

"I'm just a simple man standing alone with my old brushes, asking God for inspiration."

"Each morning I shoo the beggars and cripples from my door stoop. If God wanted these vermin to eat surely he would provide them with substance."

"White is poison to a picture: use it only in highlights."

"Who amongst us, if he were to attempt in reality to represent a celebrated work of Apelles or Timanthus, such as Pliny describes them, but would produce something absurd, or perfectly foreign to the exalted greatness of the ancients? Each one, relying on his own powers, would produce some wretched, crude, unfermented stuff, instead of an exquisite old wine, uniting strength and mellowness, outraging those great spirits whom I endeavour reverently to follow, satisfied, however, to honour the marks of their footsteps, instead of supposing—I acknowledge it candidly—that I can ever attain to their eminence even in mere conception,"