115 Best Frida Kahlo Quotes To Inspire You

Rajnandini Roychoudhury
Dec 12, 2023 By Rajnandini Roychoudhury
Originally Published on Feb 24, 2021
Edited by Monisha Kochhar
Entrance to Museo Frida Kahlo
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Age: 0-99
Read time: 12.2 Min

Her best-known painting genre includes self-portraits with highlights of the Mexican culture.

Born on 6 July 1907, Frida Kahlo was a prolific Mexican artist of the 20th century. She is one of the most idolized feminist icons of all time.

Frida Kahlo underwent a lot of surgeries after she met with an accident at the age of 18. Despite all the physical pain and the harsh reality of having to give up her medical school career and the pain of not being a mother, she became a true inspiration for the artist community, LGBTQ community, and many others.

Here are some of her best quotes.

If you think you like our content and Frida Kahlo quotes and want to be a part of our community, you can check out other amazing articles like art quotes for kids or painting quotes.

Famous Frida Kahlo Quotes

An Artist holding a mastekhin smeared in oil paint and painting

Here are some Frida Kahlo quotes you just can't ignore.

1. "I hope the exit is joyful and I hope never to return."

-Frida Kahlo.

2. "I am that clumsy human, always loving, loving, loving. And loving. And never leaving."

-Frida Kahlo.

3. "Feet, what do I need you for when I have wings to fly?"

-Frida Kahlo.

4. "Nothing is worth more than laughter. It is strength to laugh and to abandon oneself, to be light."

-Frida Kahlo.

5. "I tried to drown my sorrows, but the bastards learned how to swim, and now I am overwhelmed by this decent and good feeling."

-Frida Kahlo.

6. "I believe that by working I will forget the sorrows."

-Frida Kahlo.

7. "At the end of the day, we can endure much more than we think we can."

-Frida Kahlo.

8. "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.

9. "My toys were those of a boy: skates, bicycles."

-Frida Kahlo.

10. "I am my own muse, the subject I know best."

-Frida Kahlo.

11. "Nothing is absolute. Everything changes, everything moves, everything revolves, everything flies and goes away."

-Frida Kahlo.

12. "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.

13. "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.

14. "My subjects have always been my sensations, my states of mind and the profound reactions that life has been producing in me..."

-Frida Kahlo.

15. "Don't build a wall around your suffering. It may devour you from the inside."

-Frida Kahlo.

16. "I used to think I was the strangest person in the world."

-Frida Kahlo.

17. "Only one mountain can know the core of another mountain."

-Frida Kahlo.

18. "Surrealism is the magical surprise of finding a lion in a wardrobe, where you were 'sure' of finding shirts."

-Frida Kahlo.

19. "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."

- Frida Kahlo

20. "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.

Frida Kahlo Quotes About Love

These wise Frida Kahlo quotes and words on romance show her mental strength amidst the harshest reality which inspired her to paint self-portraits.

21. "I love you more than my own skin."

-Frida Kahlo.

22. "Perhaps it is expected that I should lament about how I have suffered living with a man like Diego."

-Frida Kahlo.

23. "Take a lover who looks at you like maybe you are magic."

-Frida Kahlo.

24. "Fall in love with yourself, with life, and then with whoever you want."

-Frida Kahlo.

25. "Diego was everything; my child, my lover, my universe."

-Frida Kahlo.

26. "You didn't understand what I am. I am love. I am pleasure."

-Frida Kahlo.

27. "It gave him (Diego) great pleasure when I arrived with the midday meal in a basket covered with flowers."

-Frida Kahlo.

28. "One day they asked me who I wanted to marry, and I said I would not marry, but I did want to have a child by Diego Rivera."

-Frida Kahlo.

29. "You too know that all my eyes see, all touch with myself, from any distance, is you."

-Frida Kahlo.

30. "I would like to give you everything I never had, but not even then would you know how beautiful is it to love you."

-Frida Kahlo.

31. "I heaven you, so my wings will open wide to love you boundlessly."

-Frida Kahlo.

32. "I have no words to tell you how much I been suffering and knowing how much I love Diego you must understand that these troubles will never end in my life."

-Frida Kahlo.

33. "You loved a man with more hands than a parade of beggars, and here you stand."

-Frida Kahlo.

34. "As always, when I walk away from you, I carry your world and your life with me, and that's what I can't recover from."

-Frida Kahlo.

35. "I do not want a half-hearted love, torn and cut in half."

-Frida Kahlo.

36. "You deserve a lover who listens when you sing, who supports you when you feel shame and respects your freedom; who flies with you and isn't afraid to fall."

-Frida Kahlo.

37. "Never in all my life will I forget your presence. You found me torn to pieces, and you sent me back whole, complete."

-Frida Kahlo.

38. "Love me a little. I adore you."

-Frida Kahlo.

39. "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.

40. "Love is like an aroma, like a current, like rain."

-Frida Kahlo.

Frida Kahlo Quotes About Art

These curated Frida Kahlo quotes are the window to her perspective on painting quotes. If you are a fan of the artist community and have been inspired by famous artist quotes, these Frida Kahlo quotes are a must-read!

41. "I paint flowers so they will not die."

-Frida Kahlo.

42. "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.

43. "I never paint dreams or nightmares."

-Frida Kahlo.

44. "I paint self-portraits because I am so often alone because I am the person I know best."

-Frida Kahlo.

45. "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.

46. "Painting completed my life."

-Frida Kahlo.

47. "To paint is the most terrific thing that there is, but to do it well is very difficult."

-Frida Kahlo.

48. "I never knew I was a surrealist till André Breton came to Mexico and told me I was."

-Frida Kahlo.

49. "My painting carries with it the message of pain."

-Frida Kahlo.

50. "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."

-Frida Kahlo.

51. "I was born a painter."

-Frida Kahlo.

52. "I paint my own reality."

-Frida Kahlo.

53. "I'd arrange flowers, all day long, I'd paint; pain, love, and tenderness."

-Frida Kahlo.

54. "They thought I was a Surrealist, but I wasn't. I never painted dreams. I painted my own reality."

-Frida Kahlo.

55. "My paintings are well-painted, not nimbly but patiently."

-Frida Kahlo.

56. "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.

57. "The most powerful art is to make pain a healing talisman."

-Frida Kahlo.

58. "The only thing I know is that I paint because I need to."

-Frida Kahlo.

59. "You were called auxochrome, the one who captures color. I chromophore — the one who gives color."

-Frida Kahlo.

60. "I was a child who went about in a world of colors."

-Frida Kahlo.

Quotes About Frida Kahlo

These Frida Kahlo quotes bind us as an art-inspired community.

61. "If I ever loved a woman, the more I loved her, the more I wanted to hurt her. Frida was only the most obvious victim of this disgusting trait. "

- Diego Rivera.

62. "Never before had a woman put such agonizing poetry on canvas as Frida did."

-Diego Rivera.

63. "I think it was the process of looking at herself that engaged her."

-Angela Carter.

64. "Frida Kahlo painted herself but she also unveiled the stories of women who give birth to pools of blood."

-Majorie Agosin

65. "I'm attracted to artists like Frida Kahlo, because her work was her life, her questions, her outrage, her suffering, her pain. Everything is in her work."

-Madonna.

66. "Too late now I realized that the most wonderful part of my life had been my love for Frida."

-Diego Rivera.

67. "I'm the kind of person that likes to see the glass half full, so, if Frida is a hook, even though it's mainstream, for me it doesn't matter."

-Fher Val.

68. "Through her paintings, she breaks all the taboos of the woman's body and of female sexuality."

-Diego Rivera.

69. "Her work as a painter came out of that accident; she painted in order to pass the time during the lengthy period of recovery nobody had really expected."

-Angela Carter.

70. "You are to me every love thought."

-Isamu Noguchi.

Frida Kahlo Quotes On Politics

Here are some political Frida Kahlo quotes that will inspire you.

71. "I have to fight with all my strength to contribute the few positive things my health allows me to the revolution"

-Frida Kahlo

72. "People in general are scared to death of the war and all the exhibitions have been a failure..."

-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. "

-Frida Kahlo.

74. "Today I'm in better company than for 20 years. I am a self and a Communist."

-Frida Kahlo.

75. "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.

76. "I am nauseated by all these rotten people in Europe – and these 'democracies' are not worth even a crumb."

-Frida Kahlo.

Self-Reflection Quotes By Frida Kahlo

Some Frida Kahlo quotes you can't miss. Her quotes on self-reflection are very poignant.

77. "What I wanted to express, more intensely and clearly was that the reason people needed to invent or imagine heroes and gods is pure fear."

-Frida Kahlo.

78. "I physically resemble both of my parents. I have my mother's eyes and my father's body."

-Frida Kahlo.

79. "My father, Guillermo Kahlo, was a fascinating man, quite elegant when moving, when walking."

-Frida Kahlo.

80. "I no longer have even the

slightest hope...

It all moves to the beat of

which my belly holds."

-Frida Kahlo.

81. "Tragedy is the most ridiculous thing."

-Frida Kahlo.

82. "I have never had an exhibition before."

-Frida Kahlo before her Julien Levy Galleries exhibit.

83. "When I recovered more or less, the doctors didn't allowed (allow) me to come back to school."

-Frida Kahlo.

84. "My Diego. I'm no longer alone. Wings? You keep me company."

-Frida Kahlo.

85. "The poet I like the most is [Carlos] Pellicer. I also admire Pita Amor."

-Frida Kahlo.

86. "Why keep wishing for it to be belligerent? I can't."

-Frida Kahlo.

87. "The only one who has taught me painting is Diego..."

-Frida Kahlo.

88. "I was always shy and afraid to show my things."

-Frida Kahlo.

89. "I didn't study with Diego. I didn't study with anyone. I just started to paint."

-Frida Kahlo.

90. "Doctor, if you let me drink this tequila, I promise I won't drink at my funeral"

-Frida Kahlo.

91. "I resorted to myself; I sought my own help."

-Frida Kahlo.

92. "The revolutionary struggle in this process is a doorway open to intelligence."

-Frida Kahlo.

93. "I have not forgotten you — the nights are long and difficult."

-Frida Kahlo.

94. "Heart like a four-poster bed. Heart like a canvas."

-Frida Kahlo.

95. "... there is a skeleton (or death) that flees terrified in the face of my will to live."

-Frida Kahlo.

96. "I have struggled and suffered so much that I deserve something whole, intense, indestructible."

-Frida Kahlo.

97. "I am essence. I am an idiot. I am tenacious. I am. I simply am."

-Frida Kahlo.

98. "I felt that something was in my throat, just as if I had swallowed the whole world."

-Frida Kahlo.

99. "Don't think I am going to sleep with you just because you took me under your wing."

-Frida Kahlo.

100. "You are fire burning all that is left of my heart."

-Frida Kahlo.

101. "So at the emerging level, you can't have a good survey art show without women and artists of color."

-Frida Kahlo.

102. "You are all the combinations of numbers of life."

-Frida Kahlo.

103. "Heart leaking something so string they can smell it from the street."

-Frida Kahlo.

104. "I paint whatever passes through my head without any other consideration."

-Frida Kahlo.

105. "I wanted to study medicine."

-Frida Kahlo.

106. "The fact that I painted myself twice, I think, is nothing but the representation of my loneliness..."

-Frida Kahlo.

107. "All of you in a space full of sounds — in the shade and in the light."

-Frida Kahlo.

108. "I am not sick. I am broken."

-Frida Kahlo.

109. "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."

-Frida Kahlo.

110. "Life insists on being my friend and my enemy."

-Frida Kahlo.

111. "I would laugh as much as I feel like at the stupidity of others, and they would all say: 'Poor thing, she's crazy!'"

-Frida Kahlo.

112. "Remember that every tick-tock is a second of life that goes by and doesn't repeat itself."

-Frida Kahlo.

113. "What would I do without the absurd and the fleeting?"

-Frida Kahlo.

114. "I cannot speak of Diego as my husband because that term, when applied to him, is an absurdity."

-Frida Kahlo.

115. "I think that little by little I'll be able to solve my problems and survive."

-Frida Kahlo.

Here at Kidadl, we have carefully created lots of interesting family-friendly quotes and products for everyone to enjoy! If you liked our Frida Kahlo quotes then why not take a look at Salvador Dali quotes, or  [Picasso quotes].

Main image credit: phortun / Shutterstock.com

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Written by Rajnandini Roychoudhury

Bachelor of Arts specializing in English, Master of Arts specializing in English

Rajnandini Roychoudhury picture

Rajnandini RoychoudhuryBachelor of Arts specializing in English, Master of Arts specializing in English

With a Master of Arts in English, Rajnandini has pursued her passion for the arts and has become an experienced content writer. She has worked with companies such as Writer's Zone and has had her writing skills recognized by publications such as The Telegraph. Rajnandini is also trilingual and enjoys various hobbies such as music, movies, travel, philanthropy, writing her blog, and reading classic British literature. 

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