120 Frida Kahlo Quotes for Strength and Inspiration

The legendary artist is still an icon and inspiration to admirers today, and these Frida Kahlo quotes will paint their beauty in your mind. Open up your mind to all the colors and explore these Frida Kahlo quotes with an open heart that’s ready to be filled with inspiration!

Frida Kahlo has been a long-time icon of mine. She inspires the art I create, the woman I am, and the boundaries I know I can push, because she blazed a trail.

Frida was SO far ahead of her time. When you look back, you would be in awe.

If you read her diary from the last year of her life, so full of emotion and art, you see that the “Art journal” is not the new fad they claim it to be.

But it was something she was doing out of art and instinct many decades ago.

This was a woman who dealt with and survived a great deal, but always did so with a sense of pride, strength, and dignity.

I hope you will be inspired by her as much as I am.

Magdalena Carmen Frieda Kahlo y Calderón

(July 6, 1907 – July 13, 1954)

For more inspiration, be sure to also check out our collection of quotes about painting and art.

Frida Kahlo Quotes About Love and Pain

1. “Feet, what do I need you for when I have wings to fly?” – Frida Kahlo

2. “I think that little by little I’ll be able to solve my problems and survive.” – Frida Kahlo

3. “The most important thing for everyone in Gringolandia is to have ambition and become ‘somebody,’ and frankly, I don’t have the least ambition to become anybody.” – Frida Kahlo

4. “Pain, pleasure, and death are no more than a process for existence. The revolutionary struggle in this process is a doorway open to intelligence.” – Frida Kahlo

5. “I hope the exit is joyful. And I hope never to return.” – Frida Kahlo

6. “Only one mountain can know the core of another mountain.” – Frida Kahlo

7. “Painting completed my life.” – Frida Kahlo

8. “They are so damn ‘intellectual’ and rotten that I can’t stand them anymore…I would rather sit on the floor in the market of Toluca and sell tortillas, than have anything to do with those ‘artistic’ bitches of Paris.” – Frida Kahlo

More Frida Kahlo quotes about life

9. “The most interesting thing about the so-called lies of Diego is that, sooner or later, the ones involved in the imaginary tale get angry, not because of the lies, but because of the truth contained in the lies, which always comes forth.” – Frida Kahlo

10. “I was born a bitch. I was born a painter.” – Frida Kahlo

11. “I am not sick. I am broken. But I am happy to be alive as long as I can paint.” – Frida Kahlo

12. “I wish I could do whatever I liked behind the curtain of ‘madness’. Then: I’d arrange flowers, all day long, I’d paint; pain, love and tenderness, I would laugh as much as I feel like at the stupidity of others, and they would all say: ‘Poor thing, she’s crazy!’ (Above all I would laugh at my own stupidity.)

I would build my world which while I lived, would be in agreement with all the worlds. The day, or the hour, or the minute that I lived would be mine and everyone else’s – my madness would not be an escape from ‘reality’.” – Frida Kahlo

13. “I am my own muse, I am the subject I know best. The subject I want to know better.” – Frida Kahlo

14. “I drank because I wanted to drown my sorrows, but now the damned things have learned to swim.” – Frida Kahlo

15. “Really, I do not know whether my paintings are surrealist or not, but I do know that they are the frankest expression of myself.” – Frida Kahlo

16. “Nothing is absolute. Everything changes, everything moves, everything revolves, everything flies and goes away.” – Frida Kahlo

17. “To feel the anguish of waiting for the next moment and of taking part in the complex current (of affairs) not knowing that we are headed toward ourselves, through millions of stone beings – of bird beings – of star beings – of microbe beings – of fountain beings toward ourselves.” – Frida Kahlo

18. “I paint flowers so they will not die.” – Frida Kahlo

19. “At the end of the day, we can endure much more than we think we can.” – Frida Kahlo

20. “You deserve the best, the very best, because you are one of the few people in this lousy world who are honest to themselves, and that is the only thing that really counts.” – Frida Kahlo

Also read these motivational Karl Lagerfeld quotes about art and fashion.

Frida Kahlo Quotes about Love and Her Art

21. “No moon, sun, diamond, hands —

fingertip, dot, ray, gauze, sea.

pine green, pink glass, eye,

mine, eraser, mud, mother, I am coming.” – Frida Kahlo

22. “They thought I was a Surrealist, but I wasn’t. I never painted dreams. I painted my own reality.” – Frida Kahlo

23. “I leave you my portrait so that you will have my presence all the days and nights that I am away from you.” – Frida Kahlo

24. “I cannot speak of Diego as my husband because that term, when applied to him, is an absurdity. He never has been, nor will he ever be, anybody’s husband.” – Frida Kahlo

25. “It was worthwhile to come here only to see why Europe is rotting, why all this people – good for nothing – are the cause of all the Hitlers and Mussolinis.” – Frida Kahlo

26. “Diego was everything; my child, my lover, my universe.” – Frida Kahlo

27. “I must fight with all my strength so that the little positive things that my health allows me to do might be pointed toward helping the revolution. The only real reason for living.” – Frida Kahlo

28. “I used to think I was the strangest person in the world but then I thought there are so many people in the world, there must be someone just like me who feels bizarre and flawed in the same ways I do. I would imagine her, and imagine that she must be out there thinking of me, too.

Well, I hope that if you are out there and read this and know that, yes, it’s true I’m here, and I’m just as strange as you.” – Frida Kahlo

29. “There have been two great accidents in my life. One was the trolley, and the other was Diego. Diego was by far the worst.” – Frida Kahlo

30. “Nothing is worth more than laughter. It is strength to laugh and to abandon oneself, to be light.” – Frida Kahlo

31. “I paint my own reality. The only thing I know is that I paint because I need to, and I paint whatever passes through my head without any other consideration.” – Frida Kahlo

32. “I want to be inside your darkest everything.” – Frida Kahlo

33. “People in general are scared to death of the war and all the exhibitions have been a failure, because the rich don’t want to buy anything.” – Frida Kahlo

34. “I paint self-portraits because I am so often alone, because I am the person I know best.” – Frida Kahlo

35. “I love you more than my own skin and even though you don’t love me the same way, you love me anyways, don’t you? And if you don’t, I’ll always have the hope that you do, and I’m satisfied with that. Love me a little. I adore you.” – Frida Kahlo

36. “Tragedy is the most ridiculous thing.” – Frida Kahlo

37. “My painting carries with it the message of pain.” – Frida Kahlo

Don’t forget to also read these Andy Warhol quotes and sayings that will inspire you to see the world differently.

Frida Kahlo quotes to help you stay strong

38. “At the end of the day we can endure much more than we think we can.”― Frida Kahlo

39. “You deserve the best, the very best because you are one of the few people in this lousy world who are honest to themselves, and that is the only thing that really counts.” – Frida Kahlo

40. “You are all the combinations of numbers of life.” –Frida Kahlo

41. “Why do I need feet when I have wings to fly?”― Frida Kahlo

42. “To paint is the most terrific thing that there is, but to do it well is very difficult.” – Frida Kahlo

43. “I put on the canvas whatever comes into my mind.” – Frida Kahlo

44. “Pain, pleasure and death are no more than a process for existence. The revolutionary struggle in this process is a doorway open to intelligence.” –
Frida Kahlo

45. “I love you more than my own skin.” – Frida Kahlo

46. “I tried to drown my sorrows but the bastards learned how to swim.” –Frida Kahlo

47. “I am that clumsy human, always loving, loving, loving. And loving. And never leaving.” – Frida Kahlo

48. “Your word travels the entirety of space and reaches my cells which are my stars then goes to yours which are my light.” – Frida Kahlo

49. “It is terrifying to see the rich having parties day and night while thousands and thousands of people are dying of hunger.”- Frida Kahlo

50. “Don’t build a wall around your suffering. It may devour you from the inside.” – Frida Kahlo

Frida Kahlo quotes to broaden your thoughts

51. “I warn you that in this picture I am painting of Diego there will be colors which even I am not fully acquainted with. Besides, I love Diego so much I cannot be an objective speculator of him or his life.” – Frida Kahlo

52. “My paintings are well-painted, not nimbly but patiently.” – Frida Kahlo

53. “I drank to drown my sorrows, but the damned things learned how to swim.” – Frida Kahlo

54. “All this anger has simply made me understand better that I love you more than my own skin, and that even though you don’t love me as much, you love me a little anyway — don’t you? If this is not true, I’ll always be hopeful that it could be, and that’s enough for me. – Frida Kahlo

55. “Feet, what do I need them for If I have wings to fly.” – Frida Kahlo

56. “I don’t want anything to hurt him, nothing to bother him and rob him of the energy he needs for living, for living as he likes, for painting, seeing, loving, eating, sleeping, being by himself, being with someone…but I’d never want him to be sad. If I had good health, I would give him all of it, if I had youth, he could take it all.” – Frida Kahlo

57. “This upper class is disgusting and I’m furious at all these rich people here, having seen thousands of people in abject squalor.” – Frida Kahlo

58. I’d like to paint you, but there are no colors, because there are so many, in my confusion, the tangible form of my great love. – Frida Kahlo

59. “I wanted to tell you that my whole being opened for you. Since I fell in love with you everything is transformed and is full of beauty… love is like an aroma, like a current, like rain.”

60. “The most important part of the body is the brain. Of my face, I like the eyebrows and eyes.” – Frida Kahlo

61. “Passion is the bridge that takes you from pain to change.” – Frida Kahlo

You might also like these Dorothy Parker quotes to uncover life’s secrets.

Insightful Frida Kahlo quotes

62. “You didn’t understand what I am. I am love. I am pleasure. I am essence. I am an idiot. I am tenacious. I am. I simply am.” – Frida Kahlo

63. “Nothing compares to your hands, nothing like the green-gold of your eyes. My body is filled with you for days and days. You are the mirror of the night. The violent flash of lightning. The dampness of the earth. The hollow of your armpits is my shelter. My fingers touch your blood. All my joy is to feel life spring from your flower-fountain that mine keeps filling all the paths of my nerves which are yours.” – Frida Kahlo

64. “I was a child who went about in a world of colors… My friends, my companions, became women slowly; I became old in instants.” – Frida Kahlo

65. “From you to my hands, I caress your entire body, and I am with you for a minute and I am with myself for a moment. And my blood is the miracle which runs in the vessels of the air from my heart to yours.” – Frida Kahlo

66. “Take a lover who looks at you like maybe you are a bourbon biscuit.” – Frida Kahlo

67. “You deserve a lover who makes you feel safe, who can consume this world whole if he walks hand in hand with you; someone who believes that his embraces are a perfect match with your skin.” – Frida Kahlo

68. “What I wanted to express very clearly and intensely was that the reason these people had to invent or imagine heroes and gods is pure fear. Fear of life and fear of death.” – Frida Kahlo

69. “Painting completed my life. I lost three children and a series of other things that would have fulfilled my horrible life. My painting took the place of all of this. I think work is the best.” – Frida Kahlo

70. “I wish I could do whatever I liked behind the curtain of “madness.” – Frida Kahlo

Frida Kahlo quotes to elevate your perspective

71. “There is nothing more precious than laughter.” – Frida Kahlo

72. “There isn’t enough time there, isn’t enough nothing. There is only reality. What once was is long gone! What remains, are the transparent roots appearing transformed into an eternal fruit tree Your fruits already give scent your flowers give color blooming in the joy of wind and flower.” –
Frida Kahlo

73. “It’s not possible to present an accurate picture of our culture without all the voices of the people in the culture. So at the emerging level, you can’t have a good survey art show without women and artists of color.” – Frida Kahlo

74. “I am nothing but a “small damned” part of a revolutionary movement. Always revolutionary never dead, never useless.” – Frida Kahlo

75. “Everyone’s opinions about things change over time. Nothing is constant. Everything changes. And to hold onto some dogged idea forever is a little rigid and maybe naive.” – Frida Kahlo

76. “I’ll wait for you. You responded to a sense with your voice and I’m full of you, waiting for your words which will make me grow and will enrich me.” – Frida Kahlo

77. “To trap one’s self-suffering is to risk being devoured from the inside.” – Frida Kahlo

78. “Through the round numbers and the colored nerves the stars are made and the worlds are sounds.” – Frida Kahlo

79. “Years. Waiting with anguish hidden away, my spine broken, and the immense glance, footless through the vast path… Carrying on my life enclosed in steel.” – Frida Kahlo

80. “My toys were those of a boy: skates, bicycles.” – Frida Kahlo

Frida Kahlo quotes that will expand your mind

81. “What would I do without the absurd and the ephemeral?” – Frida Kahlo

82. “There is nothing left everything revolves.” – Frida Kahlo

83. “My blood is a miracle that, from my veins, crosses the air in my heart into yours.” – Frida Kahlo

84. “A despair which no words can describe. I’m still eager to live. I’ve started to paint again. A little picture to give to Dr. Farill on which I’m working with all my love. I feel uneasy about my painting.” – Frida Kahlo

85. “I want a storm to come and flood us into a song that no one wrote.” – Frida Kahlo

86. “We like being sick to protect ourselves. Someone – something – always protects us from the truth – Our own ignorance and fear. Fear of everything – fear of knowing that we are no more than vectors direction construction and destruction to be alive.” – Frida Kahlo

87. “Mankind owns its destiny, and its destiny is the earth. We are destroying it until we have no destiny.” – Frida Kahlo

88. “So forgotten and so firm. Snail shells and the bride-doll, is yours too – I mean, it is you.” – Frida Kahlo

89. “Quietly, the grief, loudly the pain. The accumulated poison love faded away. Mine was a strange world of criminal silences of strangers’ watchful eyes misreading the evil. Darkness in the daytime, I didn’t live the nights.” – Frida Kahlo

90. “Of the opposite sex, I have the moustache and, in general, the face.” – Frida Kahlo

Thought-provoking Frida Kahlo quotes

91. “Perhaps it is expected that I should lament about how I have suffered living with a man like Diego. But I do not think that the banks of a river suffer because they let the river flow, nor does the earth suffer because of the rains, nor does the atom suffer for letting its energy escape. To my way of thinking, everything has its natural compensation.” – Frida Kahlo

92. “I never knew I was a surrealist till Andre Breton came to Mexico and told me I was.” – Frida Kahlo

93. “You too know that all my eyes see, all I touch with myself, from any distance, is Diego. The caress of fabrics, the color of colors, the wires, the nerves, the pencils, the leaves, the dust, the cells, the war and the sun, everything experienced in the minutes of the non-clocks and the non-calendars and the empty non-glances, is him.” – Frida Kahlo

94. “… there is a skeleton (or death) that flees terrified in the face of my will to live.” – Frida Kahlo

95. “You deserve a lover who wants you disheveled, with everything and all the reasons that wake you up in a haste and the demons that won’t let you sleep.” – Frida Kahlo

96. “I am in agreement with everything my father taught me and nothing my mother taught me.” – Frida Kahlo

97. “I had something in my throat. It felt like I had swallowed the whole world.” – Frida Kahlo

98. “Can verbs be made up? I’ll tell you one. I heaven you, so my wings will open wide to love you boundlessly. I am not sick. I am broken. But I am happy to be alive as long as I can paint.” – Frida Kahlo

99. “I have never expected anything from my work but the satisfaction I could get from it by the very fact of painting and saying what I couldn’t say otherwise.” – Frida Kahlo

100. “Sexism and racism are parallel problems. You can compare them in some ways, but they’re not at all the same. But they’re both symptoms inside the white male power structure.” – Frida Kahlo

Frida Kahlo quotes about art and suffering

101. “Since my subjects have always been my sensations, my states of mind and the profound reactions that life has been producing in me, I have frequently objectified all this in figures of myself, which were the most sincere and real thing that I could do in order to express what I felt inside and outside of myself.” – Frida Kahlo

102. Loyalty is important to me. Can you be loyal?” – Frida Kahlo

103. “Her view of life, she told a friend, was: ‘Make love. Take a bath. Make love again.’” – Frida Kahlo

104. “I don’t need rescuing, Diego.”- Frida Kahlo

105. “Surrealism is the magical surprise of finding a lion in a wardrobe, where you were ‘sure’ of finding shirts.” – Frida Kahlo

106. “I just want your serious opinion.” – Frida Kahlo

107. “They sit for hours in the cafes, warming their precious behinds and talk without stopping about culture, art, revolution and so on and so forth, thinking themselves the gods of the world, dreaming the most fantastic nonsenses and poisoning the air with theories and theories that never come true.” – Frida Kahlo

108. “What do you think matters most for a good marriage?” – Frida Kahlo

109. “They say never trust a limping dog or the tears of a woman.” – Frida Kahlo

110. “Don’t build a wall around your own suffering, it may devour you from the inside.” – Frida Kahlo

More Frida Kahlo quotes and sayings

111. “I hope the exit is joyful and i hope never to return.” – Frida Kahlo

112. “I paint flowers to prevent them from dying.” – Frida Kahlo

113. “It is certain that they are going to amputate my right leg. Details I don’t know much but the opinions are very reliable. Dr. Luis Mendes and Dr. Juan Farill. I’m very very, worried, but at the same time, I feel it would be a relief. In the hope that when I walk again I’ll give what remains of my courage to Diego. Everything for Diego.” – Frida Kahlo

114. “Name of Diego. Name of love. Don’t let the tree get thirsty it loves you so much. It treasured your seed, it crystallized your life at six in the morning.” – Frida Kahlo

115. “You left us, Chabela Villasenor. But your voice, your electricity, your enormous talent, your poetry, your light, your mystery, all that remains of you – is still alive.” – Frida Kahlo

116. “I have suffered two grave accidents in my life, one in which a streetcar knocked me down… The other accident is Diego.” – Frida Kahlo

117. “They amputated my leg 6 months ago It seemed to me centuries of torture and at times I nearly went crazy. I still feel like committing suicide Diego prevents me from doing it in the vain belief that maybe he will need me. He has told me so and I believe him. But I have never suffered so much in my life. I’ll wait a while.” – Frida Kahlo

118. “If only, I had his caresses upon me. As the air touches the earth – the reality of his person would make me merrier, it would take me away from the feeling which fills me with gray. Nothing inside me would be so deep, so final. But, how can I explain to him my need for tenderness! My loneliness over the years. My structure displeases because of its lack of harmony, its unfitness. I think it would be better for me to go, to go and not to run away. If it were all over within an instant.” – Frida Kahlo

119. “It is six o’clock in the morning and the turkeys are singing, the warmth of human tenderness. Companionable solitude. Never, in all my life will I forget your presence. You took me to you when I was shattered and you restored me to a complete whole. In this small world, where shall I turn my eyes? It’s deep immense!” – Frida Kahlo

120. “My Diego. I’m no longer alone. Wings? You keep me company. You lull me to sleep and make me come alive.” – Frida Kahlo

What are your thoughts on these powerful Frida Kahlo quotes?

I hope that you have found some inspiration and insight from the words of Frida. Long before it was “allowed” or acceptable, she was paving the way for strong women to do what they loved, and to speak their mind without having to edit herself.

This is only a taste of her words. I encourage you to explore this inspirational woman further, as I know you will grow to respect and be endeared by her.

She was no shrinking violet – she painted vibrant flowers, and she was one as well.

*for some Frida Kahlo-inspired art, please visit NotionsbyNikkiDesign on Etsy.

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