Great Throughts Treasury

"The true artist sees the harmony, the wholeness, the tendencies toward perfection in things everywhere."

"Fifty per cent of the people who come here genuinely want to see my collection; the others to meet what they consider a celebrity."

"Having plenty of time and all the museum's funds at my disposal, I put myself on a regime to buy one picture a day."

"I took advice from none but the best. I listened, how I listened! That's how I finally became my own expert."

"I was a liberated woman long before there was a name for it."

"I wore one of my (Yves) Tanguy earrings and one made by (Alexander) Calder in order to show my impartiality between Surrealist and Abstract Art."

"If Venice sinks, the collection should be preserved somewhere in the vicinity of Venice."

"It is always assumed that Venice is the ideal place for a honeymoon. This is a grave error. To live in Venice or even to visit it, means that you fall in love with the city itself. There is nothing left over in your heart for anyone else."

"My knowledge of art ended at impressionism."

"Peace was the one thing that Max (Ernst) needed in order to paint, and love was the one thing I needed in order to live. As neither of us gave the other what he most desired, our union was doomed to failure."