85 famous phrases by Salvador Dalí

Salvador Felipe Jacinto Dalí I Domènech, better known as Salvador Dalí, was a 20th-century Spanish painter, sculptor, engraver, set designer and writer, considered one of the greatest exponents of the genre called Surrealism.

Great phrases by Salvador Dalí

Salvador Dalí is known for his surreal images, his pictorial skills and as an expert cartoonist. This famous Spanish artist is possibly one of the most iconic people of the twentieth century and therefore deserves all our respect and admiration.

For those who do not know his work or his person, you can know a little more about him through the following 85 famous phrases of this great artist who was Salvador Dalí. We hope you enjoy them!

1. I do not 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 give us a new approach to a work of art.

3. To be interesting, one has to provoke.

Finding 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 socialized we are not aware of work and how to innovate in it.

5. Geniuses should 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. Genius has to go over madness and madness over genius.

A typical transgressive date of Salvador Dalí trying to confuse the recipient and at the same time recognizing his own madness.

85 famous phrases by Salvador Dalí

7. I think 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 otherwise have achieved.

9. There are some days when I think I will die from a satisfaction overdose.

A date of Dalí in which he plays with the recognition of his addictions and the pleasure he feels at that moment.

10. A great wine requires a madman to grow the vine, a wise man to watch over it, a lucid poet to do it, and a lover to drink it.

Here Dalí tells us about the entire course of a wine's life and the men who accompany it.

11. I believe that the moment is near when, by an active and paranoid thinking method, 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 of this genius of surrealism that was Dalí.

12. One day it will have to be officially admitted that what we have baptized as 'reality' is an illusion even greater than the world of dreams.

85 famous phrases by Salvador Dalí

Reality is nothing more than what we perceive by 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 dreams.

Dalí tells us here how he enjoys his particular dreamworld because it inspired him.

14. It is easy or impossible.

Without a doubt, a very transgressive date, making the complicated easy can be our duty or otherwise it may be impossible.

15. It is not necessary for the public to know if I am joking or if I am serious, just as I don't need to know.

Dalí tells us about his spontaneity and how he does not even know how he feels in each moment.

16. The first man to compare a young woman's cheeks with a rose was obviously a poet; the first to repeat it was possibly an idiot.

The one who invents something is the true genius, on the contrary, who repeats it is worthless as a person.

17. New skin, new earth! And a land of freedom, if that is possible! I chose the geology of a land that was new to me.

Dalí tells us about his need to find himself beyond where he was.

18. I am doing things that inspire me with deep emotion and I am trying to paint honestly.

Dalí performed with his works what filled him 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 avoided.

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 era.

21. Just as I am surprised that a bank employee never eats a check, I am also surprised that no painter before me ever thought of painting a soft clock.

Dalí tells us in this quote about one of his most famous works: The persistence of memory.

85 famous phrases by Salvador Dalí

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 complicated for people who don't have that genius.

23. Drawing is the honesty of art.

Drawing is a very simple and at the same time very honest way to translate our art on a canvas.

24. I want to perceive and understand the hidden powers and laws of things, to have them in my possession.

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 jewels: it is always false that seems more real, the brightest.

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 food around us, if we observe 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, in life many more things could happen than we really end up happening.

32. There comes a time in the life of every person in which he realizes that he loves me.

Dalí shows us here an egocentric point of himself, since all geniuses tend to be self-centered.

33. We must always remember that the Chinese Revolution was not a peasant revolution, but of the extreme right.

A revolution can be seen in very different ways depending on the prism from where 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 into the classical tradition of my paintings.

Dalí incorporated into his works everything that went through his mind, topics such as religion and science going 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 others and that for that 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 one is 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 tells us here about this peculiar way of seeing the figure of God, somewhat eccentric just like his own person. One of Salvador Dalí's most repeated phrases.

40. Getting fond of money as I like it is nothing less than mystical. Money is a glory.

Money can be something very important in anyone's life, and Dalí needed him to maintain his lifestyle.

41. Cannibalism is one of the most obvious manifestations of tenderness.

A very characteristic quote that Dalí's famous black humor teaches us.

42. Talk about Dalí, even for good.

Although they speak ill of us it is always positive that they do so, because that shows that they are pending our movements by admiration or envy.

43. Each of the two halves is exactly attached to the other half, in the same way that Gala was attached to me ... Everything opens and closes and interrelates precisely.

Dalí tells us about Gala here, who was his life partner and his muse.

44. I use the words you have taught me. If they mean nothing, teach me others. Or let me shut up.

Dalí shows us in this quotation his way of seeing the relationships between people and his personal character.

45. An elegant woman is a woman who despises you and who does not have low hair on her arms.

Possibly, on this date, 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 hashish, but only once.

Dalí was famous for being an avid drug user, with whom he reached a trance state that later embodied in his works.

48. When I paint, the sea roars. While others only splash in a bathtub.

Dalí's way of painting is a reflection of his chaotic soul and his emotions in full bloom.

49. To have respect in society, it is good to have the talent to kick the society you live in the right shin. After that, be a snob.

To achieve the status of genius it is essential to have a great talent, Dalí was undoubtedly one of the most talented authors of the twentieth century.

50. Instead of stubbornly trying to use surrealism for subversion purposes, it is necessary to try to make surrealism something solid, complete and classic.

Surrealism was one of the genres that Dalí played most and he owes some of his most famous works to him, the respect Dalí had for this genre is clear.

51. Repulsion is the sentinel who takes care of the door of everything we most desire.

Something can be disgusting to us until we really do it, once we are in it it can be perhaps as pleasant.

52. If you understand your painting before it is finished, then you better not finish it.

A work is finished at the moment we decide, not a second before or one after.

53. People put me in jail, and my life became divine. Magnificent!.

Dalí's eccentric personality may never cease to surprise 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 by external means and when he got it he exploited it to the fullest.

55. Since I don't smoke, I decided to let my mustache grow is better for my health.

Without a doubt, Salvador Dalí's mustache was one of his most characteristic features 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 do is an expression of the artist's personality and how he expresses it.

57. What is television for the man who can only see places that are accessible to the eye and never seen?

Television was a great change in the twentieth century and Dalí always preferred his own inner world.

58. I dedicate this novel to Gala, who was always by my side while writing it, who became the fairy of my balance, who took the salamanders out of my doubts.

Gala was the muse and wife of Salvador Dalí, was a source of inspiration throughout his life.

59. Without a doubt, I place Freud along with 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 in 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 general public pretend not to understand the meaning of the images that arise and that I transcribe in my paintings.

Salvador Dalí's works have always been a source of debate and controversy, as these can be seen from many different points of view.

61. Since the French Revolution, a vicious and cretinic tendency to consider a genius as a human being equal in every way to others has developed.

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? Every appearance is fallacious, the visible surface is deceptive. I look at my hand. They are nerves, muscles, bones. Let's go deeper: they are molecules and 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 tells us in this quote about interpersonal relationships and how they need an environment conducive to their proper development.

64. I can project myself in my little internal cinema. I free myself through a secret escape from attempts to besiege my own soul.

Our thoughts can lead us to the search for the person we really are through our mind.

65. Murder is closer to heaven, because after becoming "memories of our conscience," you pray, heaven opens, and the angels say: Good morning!

Salvador Dalí's peculiar personality allowed him to obtain a unique point of view of things that happened to him or 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 over time his work would be understood and valued even more than they did at that time.

67. Eroticism, hallucinogenic drugs, nuclear science, Gothic architecture of Gaudí, my love for gold ... there is a common denominator in all that: 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 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 sublimation process. Anything that does not take place erotically is sublimated in the work of art.

Eroticism has always been a source of inspiration for numerous artists and a way of expressing 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 he thought he had to 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 can patiently paint a pear surrounded by the tumults of history.

The painter who manages to stand out for his works is one who achieves a particular point of view that differentiates him from the rest of the people.

71. Today, the taste for defect is such that only imperfections and especially ugliness seem great. When a Venus looks like a toad, the pseudo contemporary esthetes exclaim: It's strong, it's human!

During the twentieth century art changed with respect to what was considered art long ago, and Dalí did not feel represented by the way of understanding the art of the time in which he was.

72. Every time I lose a bit of sperm I am totally convinced that I have wasted it. I always feel guilty after ... Since, for starters, I'm not so helpless.

Dalí in quotes 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 factory of what my whole life is.

Dalí's inspiration was often given by memories of his life that later embodied in his works.

74. I am surrealism.

Undoubtedly Dalí was one of the greatest exponents of surrealism, without his figure this genre would never have reached the high levels of popularity 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 have 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 in cruelty, the ugly in beautiful, etc.

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 other pasta and that they showed it in all facets of life.

79. Youth need difficulties to get things done. If you receive 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 reach our goals because with that we learn to value what we achieve.

80. There is only one thing more exasperating than a wife who knows how to cook but does not, and that would be a wife who does not 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 quotation of how he saw that relationship.

81. I always carry with me a cigarette case adorned with jewels where, instead of tobacco, there are little Adolphe Menjou-style mustaches. I offer them but nobody dares to take one.

Salvador Dalí's sense of humor was always very peculiar.

82. The famous soft watches are nothing more than the tender, extravagant, lonely and paranoid-critical Camembert of time and space.

The way 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 refractory to any teaching and seemed like he could be really dumb or that he could surprise with an amazing job.

The geniuses have always stood out in certain areas and have been disastrous in others, since the particular way of genius to understand what surrounds them involves this type of problem.

84. Before entering prison, I was nervous and anxious. I didn't know if I should paint or, perhaps, make a poem, go to the movies or go to the theater.

If we were to go to jail all the people could get nervous and Dalí did not know at that moment what to devote his last moments of freedom.

85. Dalí is a magnificent painter, but in real life, he is an amazing clown - usually more interesting for everyone.

Dalí stood out both for his work and for his person, his personality made this genius someone very dear and who we still marvel at.