Of all things known to mortals, wine is the most powerful and effectual for exciting and inflaming the passions of mankind, being common fuel to them all.

For what a man would like to be true, that he more readily believes.

The human understanding is no dry light, but receives an infusion from the will and affections... What a man had rather were true he more readily believes.

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

Truth emerges more readily from error than from confusion.

I've had photographs taken for portraits because I very much prefer working from the photographs than from models... I couldn't attempt to do a portrait from photographs of somebody I didn't know.

The true bounds and limitations, whereby human knowledge is confined and circumscribed,... are three: the first, that we do not so place our felicity in knowledge, as we forget our mortality: the second, that we make application of our knowledge, to give ourselves repose and contentment, and not distates or repining: the third, that we do not presume by the contemplation of Nature to attain to the mysteries of God.