Velazquez found the perfect balance between the ideal illustration which he was required to produce, and the overwhelming emotion he aroused in the spectator.

One always starts work with the subject, no matter how tenuous it is, and one constructs an artificial structure by which one can trap the reality of the subject-matter that one has started from.

Much bending breaks the bow; much unbending the mind.

Man seeketh in society comfort, use and protection.

He that hath a wife and children hath given hostages to fortune.

Men seem neither to understand their riches nor their strength. Of the former they believe greater things than they should; of the latter, less.

Discretion in speech is more than eloquence.