Men suppose their reason has command over their words; still it happens that words in return exercise authority on reason

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.'

States are great engines moving slowly.

Deformed persons commonly take revenge on nature.

Some artists leave remarkable things which, a 100 years later, don't work at all. I have left my mark; my work is hung in museums, but maybe one day the Tate Gallery or the other museums will banish me to the cellar... you never know.

Men fear death as children fear to go in the dark; and as that natural fear in children is increased by tales, so is the other.

I always think of myself not so much as a painter but as a medium for accident and chance.