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What pleases us about the older paintings is above all their pious simplicity.. .However, we do not want to become simple as many have done, but rather become pious and imitate their virtues.

— Caspar David Friedrich

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Notes from Wikiquote

it is possible that Friedrich refers critically in the second part of his remark to the Nazarenes

More quotes by Caspar David Friedrich

The divine is everywhere, even in a grain of sand; there I represented it in the reeds.

The pure, frank sentiments we hold in our hearts are the only truthful sources of art.

The beauty, the spirit of Germany, its sun, moon, stars, rocks, seas and rivers can never be expressed this way..

All authentic art is conceived at a sacred moment and nourished in a blessed hour; an inner impulse creates it, often without the artist being aware of it.

You call me a misanthrope because I avoid society. You err; I love society. Yet in order not to hate people, I must avoid their company.

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Attribution

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