Quote collection
583 quotes — follow a thought to its full quote page.
"How many emperors and how many princes have lived and died and no record of them remains, and they only sought to gain dominions and riches in order that their fame might be ever-lasting."
"Being engulfed in practice without delicate knowledge related to it, is in many ways like entering a ship without knowing where it is headed."
"Nothing is more apt to deceive us than our own judgment of our work. We derive more benefit from having our faults pointed out by our enemies than from hearing the opinions of friends."
"Every action needs to be prompted by a motive."
"Depth and strength of a human character are defined by its moral reserves."
"The acquisition of knowledge is always of use to the intellect, because it may thus drive out useless things and retain the good. For nothing can be loved or hated unless it is first known."
"Small rooms or dwellings set the mind in the right path, large ones cause it to go astray."
"Learning acquired in youth arrests the evil of old age; and if you understand that old age has wisdom for its food, you will so conduct yourself in youth that your old age will not lack for nourishment."
"The light for drawing from nature should come from the North in order that it may not vary. And if you have it from the South, keep the window screened with cloth, so that with the sun shining the whole day the light may not vary. The height of the light so arranged as that every object shall cast a shadow on the ground of the same length as itself."
"As regards this vice, we read that the peacock is more guilty of it than any other animal. For it is always contemplating the beauty of its tail, which it spreads in the form of a wheel, and by its cries attracts to itself the gaze of the creatures that surround it. And this is the last vice to be conquered."
"That which has no limitations, has no form."
"All thoughts start from emotions."
"The wisest and noblest teacher is nature itself."
"The length of a man's outspread arms is equal to his height."
"Truth is so excellent, that if it praises but small things they become noble."
"Great love is born of great knowledge of the thing that is loved, and if you do not know it, you can love it little or not at all."
"Man has much power of discourse which for the most part is vain and false; animals have but little, but it is useful and true, and a small truth is better than a great lie."
"The moment has no time."
"The painter or draftsman ought to be solitary, in order that the well-being of the body not sap the vigour of the mind."
"In life beauty perishes, but not in art."