All authority must be out of a man's self, turned . . . either upon an art, or upon a man.

Liberty of speech invites and provokes liberty to be used again, and so bringeth much to a man's knowledge.

Libraries are as the shrine where all the relics of the ancient saints, full of true virtue, and that without delusion or imposture, are preserved and reposed.

It's not what we eat but what we digest that makes us strong; not what we gain but what we save that makes us rich; not what we read but what we remember that makes us learned; and not what we profess but what we practice that gives us integrity.

The nature of things betrays itself more readily under the vexations of art than in its natural freedom.

Of all the things in nature, the formation and endowment of man was singled out by the ancients.

Before I start painting I have a slightly ambiguous feeling: happiness is a special excitement because unhappiness is always possible a moment later.