Salvador Dalí (May 11, 1904 – January 23, 1989) was a Spanish surrealist artist renowned for his technical brilliance, flamboyant personality, and dreamlike, often shocking imagery. His most famous works include The Persistence of Memory, Christ of Saint John of the Cross, and The Temptation of Saint Anthony. A master painter, sculptor, filmmaker, and writer, Dalí turned his entire life into a work of art, blending genius with provocation and forever expanding the boundaries of imagination.
André Breton, founder of Surrealism, once declared (before their bitter split), “Dalí is surrealism itself.”
Below, we list some unforgettable words of wisdom from Dalí, drawn from his books, interviews, and public declarations.
“Have no fear of perfection—you’ll never reach it.”
“A true artist is not one who is inspired, but one who inspires others.”
“The thermometer of success is merely the jealousy of the malcontents.”
“I don’t do drugs. I am drugs.”
“Surrealism is destructive, but it destroys only what it considers to be shackles limiting our vision.”
“Intelligence without ambition is a bird without wings.”
“At the age of six I wanted to be a cook. At seven I wanted to be Napoleon. And my ambition has been growing steadily ever since.”
“Give me two hours a day of activity, and I’ll take the other twenty-two in dreams.”
“The secret of my influence has always been that it remained secret.”
“Those who do not want to imitate anything, produce nothing.”
“Drawing is the honesty of the art. There is no possibility of cheating: it is either good or bad.”
“Every morning upon awakening, I experience a supreme pleasure: that of being Salvador Dalí, and I ask myself, wonderstruck, what prodigious thing will he do today, this Salvador Dalí.”
“Mistakes are almost always of a sacred nature. Never try to correct them.”
“I am not strange. I am just not normal.”
“The desire to survive and the fear of death are artistic sentiments.”
“An elegant woman is a woman who despises you and has no hair under her arms.”
“Wars have never hurt anybody except the people who die.”
“Let my enemies devour each other.”
“People love mystery, and that is why they love my paintings.”
“There are some days when I think I’m going to die from an overdose of satisfaction.”
“Painting is an infinitely minute part of my personality.”
“Progressive art can assist people to learn not only about the objective forces at work in the society in which they live, but also about the intensely subjective and personal forces within themselves.”
“I do not paint a portrait to look like the subject, rather does the person grow to look like his portrait.”
“Beauty should be edible, or not at all.”
“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.”
“What is important is to spread confusion, not eliminate it.”
“Take me, I am the drug; take me, I am hallucinogenic.”
“Since I don’t smoke, I decided to grow a mustache—it is better for the health.”
“Genius has to pass through the madman’s throat.”
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