85 famous phrases by Salvador Dalí
Salvador Felipe Jacinto Dalí i Domènech, better known as Salvador Dali, was a 20th century Spanish painter, sculptor, printmaker, set designer and writer, considered one of the greatest exponents of the genre called Surrealism.
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Great phrases by Salvador Dalí
Salvador Dalí is known for his surreal images, his painting skills, and as an expert draftsman. This famous Spanish artist is possibly one of the most iconic people of the 20th century and for this he deserves all our respect and admiration.
For those who do not know his work or his person, you will be able to know a little more about him through the following 85 famous phrases of this great artist that it was Salvador Dalí. We hope you enjoy them!
1. I don't take drugs. I am a drug.
Dalí was famous for his personality, which was commonly attributed to the use of recreational drugs and hallucinogens.
2. Knowing how to look is a way of inventing.
Finding the right perspective can bring us a new approach to a work of art.
3. To be interesting, one has to provoke.
Looking for the feeling in the other person is what can make us interesting.
4. Freedom of any kind is the worst for creativity.
When we get distracted or socialize, we are not aware of work and how to innovate in it.
5. Geniuses must never die, the progress of humanity depends on us.
Great works are the fruit of a few geniuses, and when they die their work is paralyzed forever.
6. The genius has to pass over the madness and the madness over the genius.
A typical transgressive quote by Salvador Dalí trying to confuse the recipient and at the same time recognizing his own madness.
7. I believe that life should be a continuous party.
Salvador Dalí was known as a very sociable man and dedicated to his own recreation.
8. Intelligence without ambition is a bird without wings.
Ambition can drive us to achieve goals that we would not have otherwise achieved.
9. There are some days when I think I'm going to die from an overdose of satisfaction.
A quote from Dalí in which he plays with the recognition of his addictions and the pleasure that he feels at that moment.
10. A great wine requires a madman to make the vine grow, a wise man to watch over it, a lucid poet to do it, and a lover to drink it.
Here Dalí talks to us about the entire life span of a wine and the men who accompany it.
11. I believe that the moment is near when, through an active and paranoid method of thought, it is possible to systematize the confusion and contribute to the total discredit of the world of reality.
A very surreal phrase without a doubt from this genius of surrealism that was Dalí.
12. One day it will have to be officially admitted that what we have dubbed ‘reality’ is an illusion even greater than the world of dreams.
Reality is nothing more than what we perceive through our senses, it does not represent the totality of what surrounds us.
13. Give me two hours a day of activity, and I will follow the other twenty-two in my sleep.
Dalí talks to us here about how he enjoys his particular dream world as it inspired him. .
14. It is easy or impossible.
A very transgressive date without a doubt, making the complicated easy can be our duty or otherwise it can be impossible.
15. It is not necessary for the public to know if I am joking or if I am serious, just as it is not necessary for me to know.
Dalí tells us about his spontaneity and how he doesn't even know how he feels at all times.
16. The first man to compare a young woman's cheeks to a rose was obviously a poet; the first to repeat it was possibly an idiot.
He who invents something is the true genius, on the contrary, whoever repeats it has no value as a person.
17. New skin, a new land! And a land of freedom, if that's possible! I chose the geology of a land that was new to me.
Dalí tells us about his need to find himself beyond the place where he is.
18. I am doing things that inspire me with deep emotion and I am trying to paint honestly.
Dalí carried out with his works that which filled him the most, he was undoubtedly a born artist.
19. Don't worry about being modern. Unfortunately it is the only thing that, whatever you do, cannot be helped.
Being too transgressive can sometimes harm us, but it is also what makes us unique and different.
20. Picasso is a painter, like me; Picasso is Spanish, like me; Picasso is a communist, I am not.
Dalí shows us in this quote a part of his deep enmity with Pablo Picasso, also an icon of the same period.
21. Just as it amazes me that a bank clerk never eats a check, I am also amazed that no painter before me ever thought of painting a squishy watch.
Dalí tells us in this quote about one of his most famous works: The persistence of memory.
22. When the creations of a genius collide with the mind of a layman, and produce an empty sound, there is no doubt that he is in error.
Many times understanding the works of a genius is something complicated for people who do not have that genius.
23. Drawing is the honesty of art.
Drawing is a very simple and at the same time very honest way to capture our art on canvas.
24. I want to perceive and understand the hidden powers and the laws of things, in order to have them in my power.
Dalí's search for constant innovation led him to a permanent search for himself.
25. The difference between false and true memories is the same as for jewelry: it is always false the one that seems most real, the most brilliant.
When something is too good to be true, it is usually because it is simply not true.
26. Life is too short to go unnoticed.
We must live intensely and take advantage of every minute of our lives to be our best version.
27. Wars have never hurt anyone except people who die.
Wars have always been one of the worst stages in the lives of all men, including Salvador Dalí.
28. Take me, I am the drug; Take me I'm the hallucinogen
Dalí always represented himself in this way, he was the drug.
29. Beauty must be edible, or nothing at all.
There is also beauty in the foods that surround us, if we look hard enough we can see beauty in almost everything.
30. If you refuse to study anatomy, the arts of drawing and perspective, the mathematics of aesthetics, and the science of color, let me tell you that this is more a sign of laziness than genius.
Art design can be a science that can take us years to know and master.
31. Very little of what could happen happens.
Undoubtedly, many more things could happen in life than what actually ends up happening to us.
32. There comes a time in every person's life when he realizes that he adores me.
Dalí shows us here an egocentric point of himself, since all geniuses tend to be egocentric.
33. We must always remember that the Chinese Revolution was not a revolution of the peasants, but of the extreme right.
A revolution can be seen in very different ways depending on the prism from which we see it.
34. Every morning when I wake up, I experience an exquisite joy, the joy of being Salvador Dalí, and I wonder in ecstasy: What wonderful things is this Salvador Dalí going to do today?
Salvador Dalí showing off his particular sense of humor, something very particular about this genius.
35. All my knowledge of both science and religion, I incorporate them into the classical tradition of my paintings.
Dalí incorporated into his works everything that passed through his mind, topics such as religion and science through many others.
36. There are only two bad things that can happen to you in life, being Pablo Picasso or not being Salvador Dalí.
Between these two contemporary geniuses there was always a deep rivalry, as the public always tended to compare them.
37. I will be a genius, and the world will admire me. Maybe I will be despised and misunderstood, but I will be a genius, a great genius, because I am sure of it.
Dalí was aware that he was not equal to the others and that for this reason he would be remembered as a genius, perhaps they would not understand him but his work would endure.
38. The problem with today's youth is that you are no longer part of it.
Dalí, with this phrase, showed us that he was already aware that his years of fullness had already passed.
39. God is just another artist, like me.
Dalí talks to us here about this peculiar way of seeing the figure of God, somewhat eccentric like his own person. One of the most repeated Salvador Dalí phrases.
40. Loving money the way I like it is nothing short of mystical. Money is a glory.
Money can be a very important thing in anyone's life, and Dalí needed it to maintain his lifestyle.
41. Cannibalism is one of the most obvious manifestations of cuteness.
A very characteristic quote that teaches us Dalí's famous black humor.
42. Let people talk about Dalí, even if it is for the better.
Even if they speak ill of us, it is always positive that they do so, because that shows that they are aware of our movements out of admiration or envy.
43. Each of the two halves is exactly linked to the other half, in the same way that Gala was linked to me... Everything opens and closes and interrelates with precision.
Dalí tells us here about Gala, who was his life partner and his muse.
44. I use the words you taught me. If they don't mean anything, show me others. Or let me shut up.
Dalí shows us in this quote his way of seeing relationships between people and his personal character.
45. An elegant woman is a woman who despises you and who does not have hair under her arms.
Possibly, in this quote Dalí tells us about his personal tastes or what attracted him to his wife.
46. It is better to have loved and lost than to have to wash twenty kilos of clothes a week.
Dalí hated routine and laziness, I always lead a very bohemian lifestyle.
47. Everyone should eat hash, but only once.
Dalí was famous for being an avid drug user, with which he reached a trance state that he later captured in his works.
48. When I paint, the sea roars. While others just splash in a bathtub.
Dalí's way of painting is a reflection of the chaotic soul of him and his emotions To flower of skin.
49. To have respect in society, it is good to have a talent to kick the right shin in the society you love. After that, be a snob.
To achieve the status of genius it is essential to have great talent, Dalí was undoubtedly one of the most talented authors of the 20th century.
50. Instead of stubbornly trying to use surrealism for subversion, it is necessary to try to make surrealism solid, complete, and classic.
Surrealism was one of the genres that Dalí touched the most and to this he owes some of his most famous works, the respect that Dalí had for this genre is evident.
51. Disgust is the sentinel that guards the door of everything we most desire.
Something can be disgusting to us until we actually do it, once we are at it it can perhaps turn out to be something pleasant.
52. If you understand your painting before it is finished, then you better not finish it.
A work is finished when we decide, not a second before or after.
53. People put me in jail, and my life became divine. Magnificent!.
Dalí's eccentric personality can never cease to amaze us.
54. To awaken my fervor, it was necessary to offer me something that I liked. Once my appetite returned, I became really hungry.
Dalí, like everyone else, needed to find inspiration through external means and when he did, he exploited it to the fullest.
55. Since I don't smoke, I decided to grow my mustache is better for my health.
Without a doubt, Salvador Dalí's mustache was one of the most characteristic features of him and with which everyone identifies him.
56. Progressive art can help people learn, not only about the objective forces of society, but also about the social character of their inner life.
The art we make is an expression of the artist's personality and how he expresses it.
57. What is television for the man who just by closing his eyes can see places accessible to sight and the never seen before?
Television was a great change in the 20th century and Dalí always preferred his own inner world.
58. I dedicate this novel to Gala, who was always by my side while I wrote it, who became the fairy of my balance, who brought the salamanders out of my doubts.
Gala was the muse and wife of Salvador Dalí, she was a source of inspiration throughout his life.
59. Without a doubt, he placed Freud alongside the heroes. He stripped the Jewish people of the greatest and most influential of all Heroes: Moses.
Dalí speaks to us in this quote from Sigmund Freud and his work within the field of psychoanalysis, without a doubt he discovered a new way of understanding the human mind.
60. It is obvious when my enemies, my friends and the public in general pretend not to understand the meaning of the images that arise to me and that I transcribe in my paintings.
Salvador Dalí's works have always been a source of debate and controversy, as they can be seen from many different points of view.
61. Since the French Revolution there has developed a vicious and cretinous tendency to regard a genius as a human being equal in every way to others.
Salvador Dalí considered himself different from the rest, his work demonstrated this during his career as an artist and after his death.
62. Where is the real? All appearance is fallacious, the visible surface is deceptive. I look at my hand. They are nerves, muscles, bones. Let's dig deeper: it's the molecules and the acids.
What we really are as individuals is not visible to the naked eye, the person we are as a whole is much more complicated to understand. Another of Salvador Dalí's great phrases.
63. The pleasure of the flesh can only be satisfied if a particular dimension is created, a kind of stereoscopic phenomenon, an imaginary hologram as real as reality is.
Dalí talks to us in this quote about interpersonal relationships and how they need an environment conducive to their proper development.
64. I am able to project myself in my little internal cinema. I free myself through a secret exit from attempts to besiege my own soul.
Our thoughts can lead us to search for the person we really are through our mind.
65. Murder is closer to heaven, because after becoming "memories of our conscience", pray, heaven opens, and angels say: Good morning!
The peculiar personality of Salvador Dalí allowed him to obtain a unique point of view of the things that happened to him or that surrounded him.
66. I think I am a better writer than a painter, and in this I agreed with my father. The important thing about my writing is not the style, nor the syntax, nor the discursive resources. The important thing about my writing is simply what I say, and the day will come when that will be accepted.
Dalí was aware that he was a genius perhaps outside of his time, that in time his work would be understood and valued even more than they did at that time.
67. Eroticism, hallucinogenic drugs, nuclear science, Gaudí's Gothic architecture, my love for gold… there is a common denominator in all of this: God is present in everything. The same magic is at the heart of all things, and all paths lead to the same revelation: we are the children of God, and the whole universe tends towards the perfection of humanity.
Dalí had a particular way of understanding the concept of God that he also reflected in some of his works.
68. Now sexual obsessions are the basis of artistic creation. The accumulated frustration leads to what Freud calls the process of sublimation. Anything that does not take place erotically is sublimated in the artwork.
Eroticism has always been a source of inspiration for many artists and a way to capture their most primitive ideas or thoughts.
69. I tried sex once with a woman and that woman was Gala. It was overrated. I tried sex once with a man and that man was the famous minstrel Federico García Lorca (the Spanish surrealist poet). It was very painful.
Dalí, throughout his life, experimented with everything that he believed he should explore and that led him to live all kinds of experiences.
70. The true painter is one who is capable of painting extraordinary scenes in the middle of an empty desert. The true painter is one who is able to patiently paint a pear surrounded by the tumults of history.
The painter who manages to stand out for his works is the one who achieves a particular point of view that differentiates him from the rest of the people.
71. Today, the taste for the defect is such that only imperfections and especially ugliness seem great. When a Venus looks like a toad, contemporary pseudo aesthetes exclaim: It is strong, it is human!
During the 20th century, art changed with respect to what was considered art long ago, and Dalí did not feel represented by the way of understanding art of the time in which he was.
72. Every time I lose a little sperm I am totally convinced that I have wasted it. I always feel guilty afterwards… Since I'm not that helpless to begin with.
Dalí in appointments like this shows that he reflected on absolutely everything that happened to him, his mind never stopped working.
73. I need all these sudden images that are presented to me from my past and that form the fabric of what my whole life is.
Dalí's inspiration was often given by memories of his life that he later captured in his works.
74. I am surrealism.
Dalí was undoubtedly one of the greatest exponents of surrealism, without his figure this genre would never have reached the high levels of popularity that it reached.
75. I categorically refuse to consider that surrealism is another literary artistic group. I think they were able to free man from the tyranny of the "practical and rational" world.
Dalí's particular vision of surrealism is something that always characterized his work and that he understood as a genre without rational barriers.
76. Surrealism served as a demonstration that total sterility and attempts at automation have gone too far and led to a totalitarian system.
In this quote, Dalí tells us about surrealism and how it is outside the limits of conventional art.
77. One might think that through ecstasy we enter a world far from reality and dreams. The disgusting become desirable, the affection cruel, the ugly beautiful, and so on.
The dream world in which Dalí often immersed himself showed him a different way of seeing the reality that surrounded him.
78. The daily life of a genius, his dream, his digestion, his nails, his colds, his blood, his life and his death are essentially different from those of the rest of humanity.
Dalí understood that geniuses were people made of another paste and that they demonstrated it in all facets of life.
79. Youth need difficulties to get things done. If you get some money for this, some money for that, everything becomes mediocre and collapses.
During our youth it is positive to be able to fight to achieve our goals, because with this we learn to value what we achieve.
80. There is only one thing more infuriating than a wife who knows how to cook but doesn't, and that would be a wife who doesn't know how to cook but does.
Dalí, as in all aspects of his life, had a very special relationship with his wife and this is a quote about how he saw that relationship.
81. I always carry with me a jeweled cigarette case where, instead of tobacco, there are small Adolphe Menjou-style mustaches. I offer them but no one dares to take one.
Salvador Dalí's sense of humor was always very peculiar.
82. The famous squishy watches are nothing but the cuddly, flamboyant, lonely and paranoid-critical Camembert of time and space.
The way in which Dalí narrated one of his great works shows us his different way of thinking and understanding his own art.
83. I was never an average student. He seemed reluctant to any teaching and it seemed like he could be really dumb or that he could surprise with amazing work.
Geniuses have always excelled in certain areas and have been disastrous in others, since the genius' particular way of understanding his surroundings leads to this type of problem.
84. Before entering prison, he was nervous and anxious. He didn't know if he should paint or perhaps make a poem, go to the movies or go to the theater.
If we were to go to jail, all of us would be nervous and Dalí did not know at that moment what to dedicate his last moments of freedom to.
85. Dalí is a magnificent painter, but in real life he is an incredible clown - usually more interesting to everyone.
Dalí stood out both for his work and for his person, his personality made this genius someone very dear and whom we still marvel at.