Our humanity is a poor thing, except for the divinity that stirs within us.

If I go to the National Gallery and I look at one of the great paintings that excite me there, it's not so much the painting that excites me as that the painting unlocks all kinds of valves of sensation within me which return me to life more violently.

Nothing is to be feared but fear.

Friendship maketh daylight in the understanding, out of darkness and confusion of thoughts.

There is no secrecy comparable to celerity.

Do not wonder if the common people speak more truly than those above them: they speak more safely.

Many secrets of art and nature are thought by the unlearned to be magical.