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

There is no excellent beauty that hath not some strangeness in the proportion.

Mahomet made the people believe that he would call a hill to him, and from the top of it offer up his prayers for the observers of his law. The people assembled: Mahomet called the hill to come to him again and again; and when the hill stood still, he was never a whit abashed, but said, 'If the hill will not come to Mahomet, Mahomet will go to the hill.'

When a man laughs at his troubles he loses a great many friends. They never forgive the loss of their prerogative.

First the amendment of their own minds. For the removal of the impediments of the mind will sooner clear the passages of fortune than the obtaining fortune will remove the impediments of the mind.

Those that want friends to open themselves unto are cannibals of their own hearts.

I have to hope that my instincts will do the right thing, because I can't erase what I have done. And if I drew something first, then my paintings would be illustrations of drawings.