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 rath… - Caspar David Friedrich

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

The painter should paint not only what he has in front of him, but also what he sees inside himself. If he sees nothing within, then he should stop painting what is in front of him.

To many it is incomprehensible that art has to emerge from a person's inner being, 'that it has to do with one's morality, one's religion..'. But so it does. You should trade only in what you recognize to be true and beautiful, noble and good in your soul.