Quote collection
583 quotes — follow a thought to its full quote page.
"O admirable necessity! O powerful action! What mind can penetrate your nature? What language can express this marvel? None, to be sure. This is where human discourse turns toward the contemplation of the divine."
"It is better to imitate ancient than modern work."
"The divisions of Perspective are 3, as used in drawing; of these, the first includes the diminution in size of opaque objects; the second treats of the diminution and loss of outline in such opaque objects; the third, of the diminution and loss of colour at long distances."
"Truth at last cannot be hidden. Dissimulation is of no avail. Dissimulation is to no purpose before so great a judge. Falsehood puts on a mask. Nothing is hidden under the sun."
"Why does the eye see a thing more clearly in dreams than the imagination when awake?"
"Men of lofty genius when they are doing the least work are most active."
"He who thinks little errs much."
"He who can copy can do."
"Just as courage imperils life, fear protects it."
"Whoever does not respect life, does not deserve it."
"In fact, whatever exists in the universe, in essence, in appearance, in the imagination, the painter has first in his mind and then in his hands ... it lies in his power to create them . . ."
"Fire destroys falsehood, that is sophistry, and restores truth, driving out darkness."
"You can have no dominion greater or less than that over yourself."
"If anyone wishes to see how the soul dwells in its body, let him observe how this body uses its daily habitation; that is to say, if this is devoid of order and confused, the body will be kept in disorder and confusion by its soul."
"The human bird shall take his first flight, filling the world with amazement, all writings with his fame, and bringing eternal glory to the nest whence he sprang."
"Patience serves as a protection against wrongs as clothes do against cold."
"The knowledge of all things is possible"
"Avoid the precepts of those thinkers whose reasoning is not confirmed by experience."
"He who in reasoning cites authority is making use of his memory rather than of his intellect."
"A good painter is to paint two main things, men and the working of man's mind."