Henri Rousseau
Henri Rousseau
Henri Julien Félix Rousseau was a French Post-Impressionist painter in the Naïve or Primitive manner. He was also known as Le Douanier, a humorous description of his occupation as a toll collector. Ridiculed during his lifetime by critics, he came to be recognized as a self-taught genius whose works are of high artistic quality. Rousseau's work exerted an extensive influence on several generations of avant-garde artists...
NationalityFrench
ProfessionPainter
Date of Birth21 May 1844
CityLaval, France
CountryFrance
Nature's instructions are always slow; those of men are generally premature.
God created man in his own image. And man, being a gentleman, returned the favor.
The passage from the state of nature to the civil state produces a very remarkable change in man, by substituting justice for instinct in his conduct.
From the first moment of life, men ought to begin learning to deserve to live.
If it is reason that forms man then it is the emotions that guide her.
The more humanity owes the poor man, the more society denies him.
Excuse my scribbling, it is late, and I have a poor candle.
Luxury... corrupts at once rich and poor, the rich by possession and the poor by covetousness.
The landscapist lives in silence.
The severity of penalties is only a vain resource, invented by little minds in order to substitute terror for that respect which they have no means of obtaining.
I cannot now change my style, which I acquired, as you can imagine, by dint of labour.
It is not the criminal things which are hardest to confess, but the ridiculous and shameful.
The principal problem I had during the five years I ran the Caisse - and I bet you that it will be the same problem for my successor - is the retention, recruitment and training of competent personnel.
Little privations are easily endured when the heart is better treated than the body.