Hardly any one is able to see what is before him, just as it is in itself. He comes expecting one thing, he finds another thing, he sees through the veil of his preconception, he criticizes before he has apprehended, he condemns without allowing his instinct the chance of asserting itself.

It is in their eyes that their magic resides.

A place has almost the shyness of a person, with strangers; and its secret is not to be surprised by a too direct interrogation.

Art begins when a man wishes to immortalize the most vivid moment he has ever lived.

There is not a dream which may not come true, if we have the energy which makes, or chooses, our own fate.... It is only the dreams of those light sleepers who dream faintly that do not come true.

A realist, in Venice, would become a romantic by mere faithfulness to what he saw before him.

But we have been taught to see before our eyes have found out a way of seeing for themselves.