66 Inspirational Artist Quotes To Overcome Fear Of Creativity


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Even the greatest artists in history have run out of creative energy and experienced the fear of creative expression. If you are an artist yourself, you know how scary it can become to express your inner visions. Many famous artists offer quotes to overcome fear and anxiety that can inspire you to conquer your own fear of making art. Have a look at this compilation of inspirational quotes about fear!

Quotes to overcome fear of creativity

how can i train my mind to overcome fear?

As an artist, you’ve most likely experienced creative block at one point or the other in your life. One of the reasons for creative block can be fear. Creative fear occurs when you’re coming from a place of self-doubt, anxiety and worry about failure.

When you take a look at some of the most powerful quotes made by famous artists – from Pablo Picasso and Vincent van Gogh to Bob Ross and Paul Gauguin – it’s clear that even the greatest artists in history know this feeling of anxiety.

Great artists are well known for being inspiring. So here are 66 inspirational quotes about fear to reignite your passion and rekindle your creative spirit!

I hope you will enjoy the quotes and find them helpful to overcome your own fears. For a deeper look into fear and the creative process, I’ve put together a this 10-step guide to help you get over the fear of making art.

7 Inspirational Artist Quotes to stop being afraid of making art

Have you ever asked yourself, ‘Why am I afraid of being creative?’, when you actually wanted to create something? Your fear is likely an accumulation of past experiences. Fear is rooted in your mind. Art is created from the love center of your heart

The solution is to connect your mind with your heart and get yourself into a love-feeling state. Hopefully, these 7 quotes about fear and love help you regain the joy of creating!  

He who works with his hands is a labourer. He who works with his hands and his head is a craftsman. He who works with his hands and his head and his heart is an artist.

Saint Francis of Assisi

Life beats down and crushes the soul and art reminds you that you have one.

Stella Adler


You can look at a picture for a week and never think of it again. You can also look at the picture for a second and think of it all your life.


Joan Miro

The great artists of the past were aware that human life is full of chaos and suffering. But they had a remedy for this. And the name of that remedy was beauty. The beautiful work of art brings consolation in sorrow and affirmation in joy. It shows human life to be worthwhile.

Roger Scruton

Art is to console those who are broken by life.

Creativity is intelligence having fun.

Albert Einstein

Art washes from the soul the dust of everyday life.

6 Inspirational Artist Quotes to Overcome the fear of creativity

In the sphere of creativity, there is no wrong and right. There are only possibilities to express yourself. Creativity doesn’t follow superimposed rules. It only respects your imagination and volition to follow the course upon which your creative mind is taking you.

Here are 6 quotes from famous artists to inspire you to follow your creative calling! 

To be an artist is to believe in life.

Henry Moore

Art evokes the mystery without which the world would not exist.

I shut my eyes in order to see.

Paul Gauguin
5 Inspirational Artist Quotes To Overcome The Fear Of Not Being Perfect
Creativity is a drug I cannot live without. ~Cécil B. DeMill

You can’t use up creativity. The more you use, the more you have.

Maya Angelou

When I say artist I mean the man who is building things... some with a brush – some with a shovel – some choose a pen.

Jackson Pollock

5 Inspirational Artist Quotes to Overcome the fear of Not being perfect

If you’re trying to always create the ‘perfect’ artwork, you’re putting way too much pressure on yourself. This can be a reason for creative block.

But even Picasso didn’t create masterpieces every time he sat down to paint. Have a look at these 5 famous fear quotes by great artists who weren’t always perfect and realize that you don’t need to expect yourself to be perfect either!

Before I start carving the idea must be almost complete. I say ‘almost' because the really important thing seems to be the sculptor's ability to let his intuition guide him over the gap between conception and realization without compromising the integrity of the original idea.

Barbara Hepworth

Every artist was first an amateur.

Ralph Waldo Emerson

Have no fear of perfection, you'll never reach it.

We don’t make mistakes, just happy little accidents.

Bob Ross

Art is longing. You never arrive, but you keep going in the hope that you will.

Anselm Kiefer

6 Inspirational Artist Quotes to Overcome the fear of being judged

Whether it’s based on real criticism or on your inner critic – there’s always a little voice in your head reminding you of your past shortfalls.  

Remind yourself that true creativity comes from a place within where anything is possible and that nobody has the right to judge. Hopefully, these 6 judgment overcoming fear quotes encourage you to believe in yourself!

Don’t think about making art, just get it done. Let everyone else decide if it’s good or bad, whether they love it or hate it. While they are deciding, make even more art.

Andy Warhol
6 Inspirational Artist Quotes to Overcome the fear of being judged
I never paint dreams or nightmares. I paint my own reality. ~Frida Kalho

Art will remain the most astonishing activity of mankind born out of struggle between wisdom and madness, between dream and reality in our mind.

Magdalena Abakanowicz

I have already settled it for myself so flattery and criticism go down the same drain and I am quite free.

An artist should never be a prisoner of himself, prisoner of style, prisoner of reputation, prisoner of success.

Henri Matisse

An artist’s only concern is to shoot for some kind of perfection, and on his own terms, not anyone else’s.

J. D. Salinger

9 Inspirational Artist Quotes to Overcome the fear of the unknown

Creativity thrives on uncertainty. The creative process is not rational; you can always change directions and add new ideas as you go along. If we always knew the outcome of our creative endeavors, we would probably be too reluctant to complete them. 

These 9 quotes about fear of change and uncertainty hopefully to feel inspired and curious as you enter unknown territories!

The main thing is to be moved, to love, to hope, to tremble, to live.

Auguste Rodin

If I create from the heart, nearly everything works; if from the head, almost nothing.

Marc Chagall

Imagination is the beginning of creation. You imagine what you desire, you will what you imagine and at last you create what you will.

George Bernard Shaw

Curiosity about life in all of its aspects, I think, is still the secret of great creative people.

Leo Burnett

Something is always born of excess: great art was born of great terrors, great loneliness, great inhibitions, instabilities, and it always balances them.

Anaïs Nin

Paintings have a life of their own that derives from the painter's soul.

7 Inspirational Artist Quotes to Overcome the fear of failure
If I knew what the picture was going to be like, I wouldn't make it. ~Cindy Sherman

Art is an adventure into an unknown world, which can be explored only by those willing to take risks.

Mark Rothko

Painting is self-discovery. Every good artist paints what he is.

Jackson Pollock

7 Inspirational Artist Quotes to Overcome the fear of failure

Fear of failure can have many reasons. It might keep you from getting started with a work because you are scared of the possibility of failing. It might leave you worried about getting your artwork out to an audience that doesn’t give it ‘enough’ likes and comments. 

Take a step back and ask yourself what’s the worst to happen if your work doesn’t get lots of likes or doesn’t sell well. These 7 quotes about fear of failure hopefully inspire you to conquer your fear!

Whether you succeed or not is irrelevant, there is no such thing. Making your unknown known is the important thing.

Go and make interesting mistakes, make amazing mistakes, make glorious and fantastic mistakes. Break rules. Leave the world more interesting for your being here. Make. Good. Art.

Neil Gaiman

Success is a worn down pencil.

Robert Rauschenberg


An artist cannot fail; it is a success to be one.

Charles Cooley

When I paint, I never think of selling. People fail to understand that we paint in order to experiment and to develop ourselves as we strive for greater heights.

Edvard Munch

Action is the foundational key to all success.

The arts are not a way to make a living. They are a very human way of making life more bearable. Practicing an art, no matter how well or badly, is a way to make your soul grow.

Kurt Vonnegut Jr.

7 Inspirational Artist Quotes to encourage Creative expression

Fear of creative expression can be a result of comparing yourself to artists that are more proficient. It’s great to have aspirations, but when you forget that those artists are at a different stage, you’ll end up feeling inadequate. 

Respect your own journey. Instead of comparing, admire the works of other artists without jealousy or anxiety. Hopefully, these 7 quotes to overcome fear and the anxiety of being inadequate help you go your own way!

Creativity takes courage.

Henri Matisse


Be who you are and say what you feel because those who mind don’t matter and those who matter don’t mind.

Dr. Seuss

While drawing I discover what I really want to say.

Dario Fo

It is only when we are no longer fearful that we begin to create.

J. M. W. Turner

Stay firmly in your path and dare. Be wild two hours a day!

Paul Gauguin

If we go for the easy way, we never change.

Marina Abramović

Every artist dips his brush in his own soul, and paints his own nature into his pictures.

Henry Ward Beecher

5 Inspirational Artist Quotes to Overcome the fear of not being enough

When you’re just getting started with art – but really at any stage – it can be hard to accept where you are currently with your work, as opposed to where you want to be. You probably have a clear inner vision of what you want to create, but your skills just aren’t taking you there … yet.

Here are 5 inspirational quotes about the fear of not being enough to help you learn to love your work and yourself at the stage where you are at. 

If you hear a voice within you say ‘you cannot paint,' then by all means paint, and that voice will be silenced.

Vincent van Gogh

Every child is an artist. The problem is how to remain an artist once we grow up.

6 Inspirational Artist Quotes to Overcome the fear of the creative process
In the mind of every artist there is a masterpiece. ~Kai Greene

The greater the artist, the greater the doubt. Perfect confidence is granted to the less talented as a consolation prize.

Robert Hughes

I started painting as a hobby when I was little. I didn’t know I had any talent. I believe talent is just a pursued interest. Anybody can do what I do.

Bob Ross

6 Inspirational Artist Quotes to Let the creative process flow

The creative process of making art can be a mess at times. Things are not always turning out as planned. But just like life, art can be messy. 

Letting your creative juices flow without sticking to rigid rules can become an exciting part of the creative process. Hopefully, these 6 famous fear quotes will inspire you to give free rein to your creativity!

There are no rules. That is how art is born, how breakthroughs happen. Go against the rules or ignore the rules. That is what invention is about.

Helen Frankenthaler

Those who do not want to imitate anything produce nothing.

Salvador Dalì

The creative process is a process of surrender, not control.

Julia Cameron

8 Inspirational Artist Quotes to Overcome the fear of being your True Artist self
There is no must in art because art is free. ~Wassily Kandinsky

The world always seems brighter when you’ve just made something that wasn’t there before.

Neil Gaiman

Inspiration exists, but it has to find you working.

8 Inspirational Artist Quotes to Overcome the fear of being your True Artist self

Being an artist means expressing your internal landscapes. You’re bringing your inner visions to the outside, for everybody to see, putting your whole self on the line. Being your true artist self is most difficult when you’re coming from a place of self-doubt, anxiety and worry about failure.

These 8 quotes about fear and the power of creating art hopefully inspire you to overcome the fear of being your true artist self.

The main thing is to be moved, to love, to hope, to tremble, to live.

Auguste Rodin

Art is as natural as sunshine and as vital as nourishment.

MaryAnn F. Kohl

You were born an original. Don’t die a copy.

John Mason

A work of art which did not begin in emotion is not art.

Paul Cézanne

I don’t think about art when I’m working. I try to think about life.

Jean-Michel Basquiat


Inhale possibility, exhale creativity.

Laura Jaworski


Art is unquestionably one of the purest and highest elements in human happiness. It trains the mind through the eye, and the eye through the mind. As the sun colours flowers, so does art colour life.

John Lubbock

You use a glass mirror to see your face; you use works of art to see your soul.

George Bernard Shaw

I hope you enjoyed these quotes by famous artists and found them helpful to your own creative process. Feel free to share them with other artists who also need a bit of inspiration to overcome their creative anxiety! 😘 

66 Inspirational Artist Quotes to overcome Fear of Creativity
66 Inspirational Artist Quotes to overcome Fear of Creativity
66 Inspirational Artist Quotes to overcome Fear of Creativity
66 Inspirational Artist Quotes to overcome Fear of Creativity
66 Inspirational Artist Quotes to overcome Fear of Creativity
AngieG. – The Person behind the Pictures
HI Y'ALL!  
My name is Angie and I’m a self-taught digital artist. On this blog, I am sharing inspirational resources and advice to help you develop your artistic skills and cultivate a creative mindset. My desire is to support you in becoming a confident artist and realizing your dream!
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