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.

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

As I grew older, I realized that it was much better to insist on the genuine forms of nature, for simplicity is the greatest adornment of art.

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.

Why has God given me such magnificent talent? It is a curse as well as a great blessing.

Some think that they know everybody, but they really don't know themselves.

Art is embedded in nature and they who can extract it, have it.