Last Updated on March 7, 2024
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Challenges are inevitable. In fact, they’re necessary. Hardships are an integral part of life; they can be catalysts for either tremendous growth or devastating defeat.
In the case of renowned artist and feminist icon Frida Kahlo, she rose in the face of adversity and accepted nothing less than tremendous growth. She became a force to be reckoned with and defined her legacy with her incredibly ability to draw beauty from pain.
A Spirit that Could Not Be Broken
When she was 18 years old, Frida Kahlo—born Magdalena Carmen Frieda Kahlo y Calderón—got into a terrible accident. The bus she was riding on collided with a streetcar, impaling Kahlo on a steel handrail.
Her spine, ribs, and pelvis suffered multiple fractures. Her shoulder was dislocated. Her foot and collarbone, broken. She needed over 30 surgeries, and doctors were unsure if she would survive.
But she did.
After spending several weeks in the hospital, she was sent home for further healing and recuperation. Despite being in pain, Kahlo refused to sit idle. She spent this time painting her first self-portrait—a portrait she later gifted to her then-romantic interest, Gómez Arias.
This was the first of many paintings she would eventually create and gift to the world. It marked the start of her legacy as an artist, an icon—a woman who could not be broken.
Unashamed and Unafraid
Her self-portraits perfectly depict her stunning, unconventional beauty.
In every picture, she proudly displays her love of color, elegance, and tradition. She was a woman who did not bend to society’s standards. Her confidence was unusual—especially for her time—and it both shocked and inspired those around her.
Like every great artist, she received criticism and praise. Like every folk hero, she was painted as both a victim and a victor, a sad story and a survivor.
And despite everything life threw at her, Kahlo rose above her circumstances and became a woman of character and renown. She refused to let her disabilities define her, choosing instead to let them empower her.
Frida Kahlo: An Artist, An Icon
Today, Frida Kahlo is admired by many. She is an icon for strength, endurance, and female empowerment. She is proof of what can happen when you make the most of the hand you’re dealt with.
What others might have seen as a hindrance, Kahlo took as an opportunity. She gave her period of recovery meaning, and that is why her art and her story are so powerful.
Recently, “Fridamania” has become rampant. Young people of all genders look to Kahlo as the epitome of grace under pressure, beauty in adversity. They see her as a leader of political independence and a portrait of unadulterated success.
Frida Kahlo is the perfect example of human tenacity and the raw strength of the human spirit. If you, like her, are going through indescribable suffering right now, remember: you are stronger than you think and far more capable than you realize.
Just like Kahlo blossomed in a place of pain, you, too, can turn your hurt into grace, passion, and raw, overwhelming beauty.
Here are some of Frida Kahlo’s most powerful quotes to help inspire you and give you the strength to rise above:
Best Frida Kahlo Quotes
“Feet, what do I need you for when I have wings to fly?” – Frida Kahlo“I think that little by little I’ll be able to solve my problems and survive.” – Frida Kahlo“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“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“I hope the exit is joyful. And I hope never to return.” – Frida Kahlo“Only one mountain can know the core of another mountain.” –Frida Kahlo“Painting completed my life.” – Frida Kahlo“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“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“I was born a bitch. I was born a painter.” – Frida Kahlo“I am not sick. I am broken. But I am happy to be alive as long as I can paint.” – Frida Kahlo“I am my own muse, I am the subject I know best. The subject I want to know better.” – Frida Kahlo“I drank because I wanted to drown my sorrows, but now the damned things have learned to swim.”- Frida Kahlo“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“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“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“I paint flowers so they will not die.”- Frida Kahlo“At the end of the day, we can endure much more than we think we can.” – Frida Kahlo“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“They thought I was a Surrealist, but I wasn’t. I never painted dreams. I painted my own reality.” – Frida Kahlo“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“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“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“Diego was everything; my child, my lover, my universe.” – Frida Kahlo“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“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“Nothing is worth more than laughter. It is strength to laugh and to abandon oneself, to be light.” –Frida Kahlo“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“I want to be inside your darkest everything.” – Frida Kahlo“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“I paint self-portraits because I am so often alone, because I am the person I know best.” – Frida Kahlo“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“Tragedy is the most ridiculous thing.” – Frida Kahlo“My painting carries with it the message of pain.” – Frida Kahlo“At the end of the day we can endure much more than we think we can.”- Frida Kahlo“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“You are all the combinations of numbers of life.” – Frida Kahlo“Why do I need feet when I have wings to fly?”- Frida Kahlo“To paint is the most terrific thing that there is, but to do it well is very difficult.” – Frida Kahlo“I put on the canvas whatever comes into my mind.” – Frida Kahlo“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“I tried to drown my sorrows but the bastards learned how to swim.” – Frida Kahlo“I am that clumsy human, always loving, loving, loving. And loving. And never leaving.”- Frida Kahlo“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“It is terrifying to see the rich having parties day and night while thousands and thousands of people are dying of hunger.”- Frida Kahlo“Don’t build a wall around your suffering. It may devour you from the inside.” – Frida Kahlo“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“My paintings are well-painted, not nimbly but patiently.” – Frida Kahlo“I drank to drown my sorrows, but the damned things learned how to swim.” – Frida Kahlo“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“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“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“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“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.”- Frida Kahlo“The most important part of the body is the brain. Of my face, I like the eyebrows and eyes.” – Frida Kahlo“Passion is the bridge that takes you from pain to change.” – Frida Kahlo“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“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“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“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.” – Frida Kahlo“Take a lover who looks at you like maybe you are a bourbon biscuit.” – Frida Kahlo“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“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“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“I wish I could do whatever I liked behind the curtain of ‘madness.’” – Frida Kahlo“There is nothing more precious than laughter.” – Frida Kahlo“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“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“I am nothing but a ‘small damned’ part of a revolutionary movement. Always revolutionary never dead, never useless.” – Frida Kahlo“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“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“To trap one’s self-suffering is to risk being devoured from the inside.” – Frida Kahlo“Through the round numbers and the colored nerves the stars are made and the worlds are sounds.” – Frida Kahlo“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“My toys were those of a boy: skates, bicycles.” – Frida Kahlo“What would I do without the absurd and the ephemeral?” – Frida Kahlo“There is nothing left everything revolves.” – Frida Kahlo“My blood is a miracle that, from my veins, crosses the air in my heart into yours.” – Frida Kahlo“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“I want a storm to come and flood us into a song that no one wrote.” – Frida KahloTags: 50 frida kahlo way 90 most powerful secrets in life about frida about frida kahlo actress frida all about frida kahlo all women are crazy quotes and the earth did not devour him quotes art and madness quotes art is truth quote art journal phrases art lady with unibrow art leo quotes art quotes for kids artist caption artist eyebrows artist frida kahlo artist frida kahlo biography artist frida kahlo is well known for her artist frida kahlo paintings artist frida kahlo quotes artist heart quotes artist hope love and life artist muse quotes artist named frida artists hands quotes back pain quotes beautiful portrait quotes beauty art quotes beauty is pain quote beauty is pain quotes best biography of frida kahlo best frida kahlo biography best frida kahlo quotes best frida kahlo quotes in spanish best mexican artists biography of frida kahlo bleeding violet 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Igor is an SEO specialist, designer, photographer, writer and music producer. He believes that knowledge can change the world and be used to inspire and empower young people to build the life of their dreams. When he is not writing in his favorite coffee shop, Igor spends most of his time reading books, taking photos, producing house music, and learning about cinematography. He is a sucker for good coffee, Indian food, and video games.
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