The less people speak of their greatness, the more we think of it.

Painting today is pure intuition and luck and taking advantage of what happens when you splash the stuff down.

Seek ye first the good things of the mind, and the rest will either be supplied or its loss will not be felt.

Certainly the best works, and of greatest merit for the public, have proceeded from the unmarried, or childless men.

But by far the greatest obstacle to the progress of science and to the undertaking of new tasks and provinces therein is found in this-that men despair and think things impossible.

The human understanding is like a false mirror, which, receiving rays irregularly, distorts and discolors the nature of things by mingling its own nature with it.

Some men covet knowledge out of a natural curiosity and inquisitive temper; some to entertain the mind with variety and delight; some for ornament and reputation; some for victory and contention; many for lucre and a livelihood; and but few for employing the Divine gift of reason to the use and benefit of mankind.