Skip to content

In Europe men and women have intercourse because they love each other. In the South Seas they love each other because they have had intercourse. Who is right?

— Paul Gauguin Bengt Danielsson in Gauguin in the South Seas (1966)

Another quote →

Topics

More quotes by Paul Gauguin

A time will come when people will think I am a myth, or rather something the newspapers have made up.

The Writings of a Savage (1996)

I have lingered among the nymphs of Corot, dancing in the sacred wood of Ville-d'Avray.

A young man who is unable to commit a folly is already an old man.

The Writings of a Savage (1996)

With this painting, I tried to make everything breathe faith, quiet suffering, religious and primitive style and great nature with its scream.

It takes very little to bring about a woman’s fall, but you have to lift a whole world in order to lift her.

All Paul Gauguin quotes →

You may also like

Love looks not with the eyes, but with the mind,
And therefore is wing'd Cupid painted blind.

William Shakespeare A Midsummer Night's Dream (1595)

To fear love is to fear life, and those who fear life are already three parts dead.

Bertrand Russell Marriage and Morals (1929)

Not for the body, but for the heart; companion and company are needed.

Sanu Sharma

Love seldom haunts the breast where learning lies,
And Venus sets ere Mercury can rise.

Alexander Pope

Attribution

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.