It was a high speech of Seneca that "The good things which belong to prosperity are to be wished, but the good things that belong to adversity are to be admired."

Very few people have a natural feeling for painting, and so, of course, they naturally think that painting is an expression of the artist's mood. But it rarely is. Very often he may be in greatest despair and be painting his happiest paintings.

But men must know, that in this theatre of man's life it is reserved only for God and angels to be lookers on.

I'm working for myself; what else have I got to work for? How can you work for an audience? What do you imagine an audience would want? I have got nobody to excite except myself, so I am always surprised if anyone likes my work sometimes. I suppose I'm very lucky, of course, to be able to earn my living by something that really absorbs me to try to do, if that is what you call luck.

A wise man will make more opportunities than he finds.

If there be fuel prepared, it is hard to tell whence the spark shall come that shall set it on fire.

But the images of men's wits and knowledges remain in books, exempted from the wrong of time, and capable of perpetual renovation.