Salvador Dalí, a leader of the Surrealist movement, is arguably one of the world’s most famous artists—but his creative talents went far beyond the art world. From stage plays to movies to fashion to photography to architecture, the Catalonia, Spain-born master was a creative renaissance man. He was something a philosopher, too, as the below quotes show.
“At the age of 6 I wanted to be a cook. At 7 I wanted to be Napoleon. And my ambition has been growing steadily ever since.”
“Since I don’t smoke, I decided to grow a mustache—it is better for the health. However, I always carried a jewel-studded cigarette case in which, instead of tobacco, were carefully placed several mustaches, Adolphe Menjou style. I offered them politely to my friends: ‘Mustache? Mustache? Mustache?’ Nobody dared to touch them. This was my test regarding the sacred aspect of mustaches.”
“A true artist is not one who is inspired, but one who inspires others.”
“Have no fear of perfection—you’ll never reach it.”
“Every morning when I wake up, I experience an exquisite joy—the joy of being Salvador Dalí—and I ask myself in rapture: What wonderful things is this Salvador Dalí going to accomplish today?”
“Intelligence without ambition is a bird without wings.”
“I don’t do drugs. I am drugs.”
“The difference between false memories and true ones is the same as for jewels: it is always the false ones that look the most real, the most brilliant.”
“I am not strange. I am just not normal.”
“Mistakes are almost always of a sacred nature. Never try to correct them. On the contrary: rationalize them, understand them thoroughly. After that, it will be possible for you to sublimate them.”
“Those who do not want to imitate anything, produce nothing.”
“There are some days when I think I’m going to die from an overdose of satisfaction.”
“The first man to compare the cheeks of a young woman to a rose was obviously a poet; the first to repeat it was possibly an idiot.”
“People love mystery, and that is why they love my paintings.”
“The thermometer of success is merely the jealousy of the malcontents.”
“In order to acquire a growing and lasting respect in society, it is a good thing, if you possess great talent, to give, early in your youth, a very hard kick to the right shin of the society that you love. After that, be a snob.”
“Begin by learning to draw and paint like the old masters. After that, you can do as you like; everyone will respect you.”
“The secret of my influence has always been that it remained secret.”
“Surrealism is destructive, but it destroys only what it considers to be shackles limiting our vision.”
“It is good taste, and good taste alone, that possesses the power to sterilize and is always the first handicap to any creative functioning.”
“Drawing is the honesty of the art. There is no possibility of cheating. It is either good or bad.”
“It’s better to have loved and lost than do 40 pounds of laundry a week.”
“It is not necessary for the public to know whether I am joking or whether I am serious, just as it is not necessary for me to know it myself.”
“There is only one difference between a madman and me. The madman thinks he is sane. I know I am mad.”
“I do not paint a portrait to look like the subject, rather does the person grow to look like his portrait.”
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A version of this story originally ran in 2018; it has been updated for 2024.
Jennifer M Wood
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