Short Frida Kahlo Quotes, Powerful Words

The thoughts, ideas, dreams, and musings of the famous Mexican artist.

Last updated Jan 22, 2024

These short Frida Kahlo quotes reflect the thoughts, ideas, dreams, and musings of the famous Mexican artist. They are collected from interviews, writings and personal diary entries over the course of her lifetime.

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The powerful words and expressions of Frida Kahlo

Frida Kahlo is considered one of Mexico’s greatest artists; a powerful symbol of individualism built through a life of suffering and tragedy. Her self portraits are icons of feminism, non-conformity and the fighting spirit.

These short Frida Kahlo quotes may inspire and empower you to find your own voice in this world.

Frida quotes on life and living

Kahlo suffered physically throughout her life. At the age of six, she contracted polio and became bedridden for nine months. The disease resulted in damage to her right leg and foot that she battled for the rest of her life.

An accident in 1925 left her with life-long injuries to her leg and hip. A streetcar struck a bus in which she was traveling, leaving her impaled by the bus handrail. The rail damaged her pelvis near her spine.

She said of the accident, “The handrail pierced me as the sword pierces the bull.”

In 1953 part of her leg had to be amputated to stop the spread of gangrene. Throughout her recovery periods, Kahlo suffered from depression.

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Inspiring quotes by Frida Kahlo

Don’t build a wall around your own suffering – it may devour you from the inside.

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

I think that little by little I’ll be able to solve my problems and survive.

There is nothing more precious than laughter.

Nothing is worth more than laughter. It is strength to laugh and to abandon oneself, to be light. Tragedy is the most ridiculous thing.

I’ll do what I can to escape from my world.

I am a poor little deer.

I drank to drown my sorrows, but the damned things learned how to swim.

Mankind owns its destiny, and its destiny is the earth. We are destroying it until we have no destiny.

I had something in my throat. It felt like I had swallowed the whole world.

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

Tragedy is the most ridiculous thing.

Frida Kahlo quotations on life and living

To trap one’s self-suffering is to risk being devoured from the inside.

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

Everything exists, and moves, under only one law = life.

People, in general, are scared to death of the war and all the exhibitions have been a failure because the rich bitches don’t want to buy anything.

I want a storm to come and flood us into a song that no one wrote.

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

I could kill that guy and eat it afterwards.

What would I do without the absurd and the ephemeral?

I don’t like the gringos at all. They are very boring and all have faces like unbaked rolls.

Today is like always.

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

It was worthwhile to come here only to see why Europe is rotting, why all these people — good for nothing — are the cause of all the Hitlers and Mussolinis.

Timeline: Frida Kahlo

• BIRTH: Frida is born Magdalena Carmen Frida Kahlo y Calderón on July 6, 1907 in Coyoacán, Mexico City, Mexico.

• BUS ACCIDENT: Kahlo is seriously injured in a bus accident in Mexico on September 17, 1925. The experience will shape the rest of her life and her art.

• COMMUNISM: Frida joins the Mexican Communist Party in 1927, where she meets Mexican artist Diego Rivera.

• MARRIAGE: She marries Diego Rivera on August 21, 1929. The couple gets divorced in November of 1939, but they remarry on December 8, 1940.

• 1ST ART EXHIBITION: Kahlo’s first solo exhibition is held at the Julien Levy Gallery in New York in 1938.

• THE LOUVRE: In 1939, Kahlo’s painting The Frame is featured at the Louvre in Paris.

• MEXICO EXHIBITION: Her first solo exhibition in Mexico occurs in 1953.

• DEATH: Frida dies on July 13, 1954, at the age of 47 in Coyoacán, Mexico City, Mexico.

Frida Kahlo love and romance quotes

Kahlo’s greatest love was the famous painter and muralist Diego Rivera. The couple married in 1929. Diego was 20 years older than Frida. Many of her quotes reflect her love for Rivera and the passion of their relationship.

I leave you my portrait so that you will have my presence all the days and nights that I am away from you.

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

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

I love you more than my own skin.

Passion is the bridge that takes you from pain to change.

I have not forgotten you–the nights are long and difficult.

Your word travels the entirety of space and reaches my cells which are my stars then go to yours which are my light.

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

I want to be inside your darkest everything.

Take a lover who looks at you like maybe you are a bourbon biscuit.

My blood is a miracle that, from my veins, crosses the air in my heart into yours.

There have been two great accidents in my life. One was the trolley, and the other was Diego. Diego was by far the worst.

Only one mountain can know the core of another mountain.

“Frida” the Movie:

The movie “Frida” starred Salma Hayek as Frida Kahlo and Alfred Molina as Diego Rivera. It was nominated for six Academy Awards, winning for Best Makeup and Original Score.

Frida on creativity, art, and painting

I don’t paint dreams or nightmares, I paint my own reality.

I paint flowers so they will not die.

Painting completed my life.

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

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Really, I do not know whether my paintings are surrealist or not, but I do know that they are the frankest expression of myself.

I am not sick. I am broken. But I am happy to be alive as long as I can paint.

I am my own muse, I am the subject I know best. The subject I want to know better.

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

I never paint dreams or nightmares. I paint my own reality.

Surrealism is the magical surprise of finding a lion in a wardrobe, where you were ‘sure’ of finding shirts.

My painting carries with it the message of pain.

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.

I never knew I was a surrealist till Andre Breton came to Mexico and told me I was.

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’s most notable paintings

Frieda and Diego Rivera
The Suicide of Dorothy Hale
The Broken Column
Henry Ford Hospital
The Two Fridas

Frida Kahlo poetic quotes

Many of these short Frida Kahlo quotes come from her personal diary entries. Long recovery periods throughout her life left her bedridden.

She filled her diary with images and words that expressed her thoughts and dreams. Towards the end of her life, many of the images represented death, skeletons, and angels.

Feet, what do I need them for
If I have wings to fly.

i was born a bitch.
i was born a painter.

You are all the combinations
of numbers
of life.

Wordless,
Infinite —
You.
You intensify
everything.
You are
fire
burning
all that
is left
of my
heart.

Nothing compares to your hands…
My body is filled with you for days and days.

No moon, sun, diamond, hands — fingertip, dot, ray, gauze, sea. pine green, pink glass, eye, mine, eraser, mud, mother, I am coming.

Frida Kahlo quotes in Spanish

Here are a few more Frida Kahlo quotations in her native Spanish language:

Traté de ahogar mis penas… pero las condenadas aprendieron a nadar.
(I tried to drown my sorrows … but the condemned ones learned to swim.)

Quisiera darte todo lo que nunca hubieras tenido, y ni así sabrías la maravilla que es poder quererte.
(I would like to give you everything you never would have, and even then you would not know the wonder it is to be able to love you.)

Vivir de recuerdos es morir.
(To live on memories is to die.)

Pies pa’ que los quiero, si tengo alas pa’ volar.
(Feet, why do I want them, if I have wings to fly)

Que todo termina en un instante.
Planatera doloroso.
(That everything ends in an instant / Painful Planatera)

Kahlo Spanish quotes with translations

La belleza y la fealdad son un espejismo, porque los demás terminan viendo nuestro interior.
(Beauty and ugliness are a mirage because others end up seeing our inside.)

Espero que la salida sea alegre y espero no volver nunca más.
(I hope the departure is happy and I hope never to return.)

Si actuas como si supieras lo que estas haciendo, puedes hacer lo que quieras.
(If you act as if you know what you are doing, you can do whatever you want.)

Te vas? No. Alas rotas.
(You go? No. Broken wings.)

Amurallar el propio sufrimiento es arriesgarse a que te devore desde el interior.
(To wall your own suffering is to risk being devoured from within.)

Donde no puedas amar, no te demores.
(Where you can not love, do not delay.)

Lo que no me mata, me alimenta.
(What does not kill me, feeds me.)

VIDEO: Frida Kahlo – Draw My Life

More Frida Kahlo Spanish quotes

No quiero que pienses como yo, sólo que pienses.
(I don’t want you to think like I do. I just want you to think.)

Lo único que sé es que pinto porque lo necesito.
(The only thing I know is that I paint because I need to.)

Me acogiste destrozada y me devolviste entera, íntegra.
(You took me in broken and you returned me whole.)

Árbol de la esperanza, mantente firme.
(Tree of hope, stand firm.)

Hay que ser sinceras, sin dolor no podemos vivir las mujeres.
(We have to be honest: women can’t live without pain.)

Mi sangre es un milagro que desde mis venas cruza el aire de mi corazón al tuyo.
(My blood is a miracle that, from my veins, crosses the air in my heart into yours.)

Frida Kahlo quotes en Español

Vivo cada día con la esperanza de verte regresar… y cada noche sabiendo que no estás.
(I live every day with hopes of seeing you coming back… and every night knowing you’re not here.)

El dolor no es parte de la vida, se puede convertir en la vida misma.
(Pain is not a part of life. It can become life itself.)

Dame ilusión, esperanza, ganas de vivir y no me olvides.
(Give me hope, make me dream, will to live and don’t forget me.)

¿Qué haría yo sin lo absurdo y lo fugaz?
(What would be of me without the absurd and fleeting?)

Creo que poco a poco voy a ser capaz de resolver mis problemas y sobrevivir.
(I think that little by little I’ll be capable of solving my troubles and survive.)

Kahlo passed away July 13, 1954 at age 47, possibly from a pulmonary embolism. Rumors that she took her own life persist to this day, but have not been confirmed. What were Frida Kahlo’s last words? Find out here.

Etcetera

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