Your Nordic blue eyes looked attentively at the paintings hanging on the walls. I felt stirrings of rebellion: a whole clash between your civilization and my barbarism. Civilization from which you suffer. Barbarism which for me is a rejuvenation.

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Source, in full

Original: Votre œil bleu du nord regardait attentivement les tableaux pendus aux murs. J’eus comme le pressentiment d’une révolte : tout un choc entre votre civilisation et ma barbarie. Civilisation dont vous souffrez. Barbarie qui est pour moi un rajeunissement.

Notes from Wikiquote

p. 105: quote from his letter to August Strindberg (5 May 1895)

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Quote text and notes from Wikiquote: Paul Gauguin (page history), available under CC BY-SA 4.0. Source quality and labels are our own summary of what Wikiquote records.