Pablo Ruiz Picasso was a Spanish painter, sculptor, printmaker, ceramicist, stage designer, poet and playwright who was the most dominant and influential artist of the first half of the 20th century. Profoundly inspirational Pablo Picasso quotes will challenge the way you think, change the way you live and transform your whole life.
If you’re searching for powerful quotes by famous artists that perfectly capture what you’d like to say or just want to feel inspired yourself, browse through an amazing collection of quotes by Salvador Dali, best Bob Ross quotes and famous Andy Warhol quotes.
Famous Pablo Picasso Quotes
Art washes away from the soul the dust of everyday life. Pablo Picasso
Everything you can imagine is real. Pablo Picasso
Others have seen what is and asked why. I have seen what could be and asked why not. Pablo Picasso
Every child is an artist. The problem is how to remain an artist once he grows up. Pablo Picasso
Ah, good taste! What a dreadful thing! Taste is the enemy of creativeness. Pablo Picasso
Art is the lie that enables us to realize the truth. Pablo Picasso
Only put off until tomorrow what you are willing to die having left undone. Pablo Picasso
Others have seen what is and asked why. I have seen what could be and asked why not. Pablo Picasso
There are painters who transform the sun to a yellow spot, but there are others who with the help of their art and their intelligence, transform a yellow spot into sun. Pablo Picasso
Learn the rules like a pro, so you can break them like an artist. Pablo Picasso
The artist is a receptacle for emotions that come from all over the place from the sky, from the earth, from a scrap of paper, from a passing shape, from a spider’s web. Pablo Picasso
Only put off until tomorrow what you are willing to die having left undone. Pablo Picasso
It takes a very long time to become young. Pablo Picasso
Ah, good taste! What a dreadful thing! Taste is the enemy of creativeness. Pablo Picasso
My mother said to me, If you are a soldier, you will become a general. If you are a monk, you will become the Pope. Instead, I was a painter, and became. Pablo Picasso
When I was a child my mother said to me, If you become a soldier, you’ll be a general. If you become a monk, you’ll be the pope. Instead I became a painter and wound up as Picasso. Pablo Picasso
I do not seek. I find. Pablo Picasso
There are painters who transform the sun to a yellow spot, but there are others who with the help of their art and their intelligence, transform a yellow spot into sun. Pablo Picasso
An idea is a point of departure and no more. As soon as you elaborate it, it becomes transformed by thought. Pablo Picasso
It takes a very long time to become young. Pablo Picasso
Art is not the application of a canon of beauty but what the instinct and the brain can conceive beyond any canon. When we love a woman we don’t start measuring her limbs. Pablo Picasso
I am always doing that which I can not do, in order that I may learn how to do it. Pablo Picasso
Colors, like features, follow the changes of the emotions. Pablo Picasso
What do you think an artist is? he is a political being, constantly aware of the heart breaking, passionate, or delightful things that happen in the world, shaping himself completely in their image. Painting is not done to decorate apartments. It is an instrument of war. Pablo Picasso
Everything is a miracle. It is a miracle that one does not dissolve in one’s bath like a lump of sugar. Pablo Picasso
The meaning of life is to find your gift. The purpose of life is to give it away. Pablo Picasso
To copy others is necessary, but to copy oneself is pathetic. Pablo Picasso
We all know that Art is not truth. Art is a lie that makes us realize truth at least the truth that is given us to understand. The artist must know the manner whereby to convince others of the truthfulness of his lies. Pablo Picasso
Success is dangerous. One begins to copy oneself, and to copy oneself is more dangerous than to copy others. It leads to sterility. Pablo Picasso
If I paint a wild horse, you might not see the horse but surely you will see the wildness! Pablo Picasso
We all know that Art is not truth. Art is a lie that makes us realize truth, at least the truth that is given us to understand. Pablo Picasso
The world doesn’t make sense, so why should I paint pictures that do? Pablo Picasso
Are we to paint what’s on the face, what’s inside the face, or what’s behind it? Pablo Picasso
Painting is just another way of keeping a diary. Pablo Picasso
Learn the rules like a pro, so you can break them like an artist. Pablo Picasso
There is no abstract art. You must always start with something. Afterward you can remove all traces of reality. Pablo Picasso
It took me four years to paint like Raphael, but a lifetime to paint like a child. Pablo Picasso
God is really only another artist. He invented the giraffe, the elephant and the cat. He has no real style, He just goes on trying other things. Pablo Picasso
If I paint a wild horse, you might not see the horse but surely you will see the wildness! Pablo Picasso
If only we could pull out our brain and use only our eyes. Pablo Picasso
There is no abstract art. You must always start with something. Afterward you can remove all traces of reality. Pablo Picasso
To draw, you must close your eyes and sing. Pablo Picasso
Who sees the human face correctly the photographer, the mirror, or the painter? Pablo Picasso
We artists are indestructible; even in a prison, or in a concentration camp, I would be almighty in my own world of art, even if I had to paint my pictures with my wet tongue on the dusty floor of my cell. Pablo Picasso
Painting is an essential function of human life. Wherever human beings live, painting has existed and exists. Painting is a language, as with words. Pablo Picasso
People want to find a meaning in everything and everyone. That’s the disease of our age. Pablo Picasso
I paint objects as I think them not as I see them. Pablo Picasso
I begin with an idea and then it becomes something else. Pablo Picasso
Some painters transform the sun into a yellow spot, others transform a yellow spot into the sun. Pablo Picasso
What one does is what counts. Not what one had the intention of doing. Pablo Picasso
The more technique you have the less you have to worry about it. The more technique there is the less there is. Pablo Picasso
He can who thinks he can, and he can’t who thinks he can’t. This is an inexorable, indisputable law. Pablo Picasso
Colors, like features, follow the changes of the emotions. Pablo Picasso
Every now and then one paints a picture that seems to have opened a door and serves as a stepping stone to other things. Pablo Picasso
When art critics get together they talk about Form and Structure and Meaning. When artists get together they talk about where you can buy cheap turpentine. Pablo Picasso
Every act of creation is first of all an act of destruction. Pablo Picasso
Everyone wants to understand art. Why not try to understand the song of a bird? Why does one love the night, flowers, everything around one, without trying to understand them? Pablo Picasso
Why do two colors, put one next to the other, sing? Can one really explain this? no. Just as one can never learn how to paint. Pablo Picasso
What do you think an artist is? he is a political being, constantly aware of the heart breaking, passionate, or delightful things that happen in the world, shaping himself completely in their image. Painting is not made to decorate apartments. It’s an offensive and defensive weapon against the enemy. Pablo Picasso
The artist is a receptacle for emotions that come from all over the place from the sky, from the earth, from a scrap of paper, from a passing shape, from a spider’s web. Pablo Picasso
Every child is an artist. The problem is to remain an artist once they grow up. Pablo Picasso
Every positive value has its price in negative terms the genius of Einstein leads to Hiroshima. Pablo Picasso
Unless your work gives you trouble, it is no good. Pablo Picasso
Everything is a miracle. It is a miracle that one does not melt in one’s bath. Pablo Picasso
The hidden harmony is better than the obvious. Pablo Picasso
Everyone wants to understand art. Why not try to understand the song of a bird? Why does one love the night, flowers, everything around one, without trying to understand them? But in the case of a painting people have to understand. If only they would realize above all that an artist works of necessity, that he himself is only a trifling bit of the world, and that no more importance should be attached to him than to plenty of other things which please us in the world, though we can’t explain them. People who try to explain pictures are usually barking up the wrong tree. Pablo Picasso
Unless your work gives you trouble, it is no good. Pablo Picasso
Art is never chaste. It ought to be forbidden to ignorant innocents, never allowed into contact with those not sufficiently prepared. Yes, art is dangerous. Where it is chaste, it is not art. Pablo Picasso
The meaning of life is to find your gift. The purpose of life is to give it away. Pablo Picasso
There is only one way to see things, until someone shows us how to look at them with different eyes. Pablo Picasso
The meaning of life is to find your gift. The purpose of life is to give it away. Pablo Picasso
You have to have an idea of what you are going to do, but it should be a vague idea. Pablo Picasso
People want to find a meaning in everything and everyone. That’s the disease of our age. Pablo Picasso
Some painters transform the sun into a yellow spot, others transform a yellow spot into the sun. Pablo Picasso
Love is the greatest refreshment in life. Pablo Picasso
Everybody has the same energy potential. The average person wastes his in a dozen little ways. I bring mine to bear on one thing only my paintings, and everything else is sacrificed to it myself included. Picasso
When you come right down to it all you have is yourself. The sun is a thousand rays in your belly. All the rest is nothing. Pablo Picasso
Whatever the source of emotion that drives me to create, I want to give it a form which has some connection with the visible world, even if it is only to wage war on that world I want my paintings to be able to defend themselves to resist the invader, just as though there were razor blades on all surfaces so no one could touch them without cutting his hands. Pablo Picasso
The chief enemy of creativity is good sense. Pablo Picasso
Who sees the human face correctly the photographer, the mirror, or the painter? Pablo Picasso
Every act of creation is first an act of destruction. Pablo Picasso
The more technique you have the less you have to worry about it. The more technique there is the less there is. Pablo Picasso
I am always doing things I can’t do, that’s how I get to do them. Pablo Picasso
Matisse makes a drawing, then he makes a copy of it. He copies it five times, ten times, always clarifying the line. He’s convinced that the last, the most stripped down, is the best, the purest, the definitive one; and in fact, most of the time, it was the first. In drawing, nothing is better than the first attempt. Pablo Picasso
Others have seen what is and asked why. I have seen what could be and asked why not. Pablo Picasso
The fact that for a long time Cubism has not been understood and that even today there are people who cannot see anything in it means nothing. I do not read English, an English book is a blank book to me. This does not mean that the English language does not exist. Why should I blame anyone but myself if I cannot understand what I know nothing about? Pablo Picasso
Ah, good taste! What a dreadful thing! Taste is the enemy of creativeness. Pablo Picasso
Art is not chaste. Those ill prepared should be allowed no contact with art. Art is dangerous. If it is chaste, it is not art. Pablo Picasso
Only put off until tomorrow what you are willing to die having left undone. Pablo Picasso
When I was a kid I drew like Michelangelo. It took me years to learn to draw like a kid. Pablo Picasso
Inspiration exists, but it has to find you working. Pablo Picasso
An idea is a point of departure and no more. As soon as you elaborate it, it becomes transformed by thought. Pablo Picasso
Look for a situation in which your work will give you as much happiness as your spare time. Pablo Picasso
When you come right down to it all you have is yourself. The sun is a thousand rays in your belly. All the rest is nothing. Pablo Picasso
Others have seen what is and asked why. I have seen what could be and asked why not. Pablo Picasso
You have to know how to be vulgar. Paint with four letter words. Pablo Picasso
The people who make art their business are mostly imposters. Pablo Picasso
It would be very interesting to preserve photographically not the stages, but the metamorphoses of a picture. Possibly one might then discover the path followed by the brain in materializing a dream. Pablo Picasso
