Nature holds the beautiful, for the artist who has the insight to extract it. Thus, beauty lies even in humble, perhaps ugly things, and the ideal, which bypasses or improves on nature, may not be truly beautiful in the end.

And since geometry is the right foundation of all painting, I have decided to teach its rudiments and principles to all youngsters eager for art. . .

What beauty is, I know not, though it adheres to many things.

I hold that the perfection of form and beauty is contained in the sum of all men.

Sight is the noblest sense of man.

No single man can be taken as a model for a perfect figure, for no man lives on earth who is endowed with the whole of beauty.

The artist is chosen by God to fulfill his commands and must never be overwhelmed by public opinion.