A forbidden writing is thought to be a certain spark of truth, that flies up in the face of them who seek to tread it out.

Everybody has his own interpretation of a painting he sees.

I want to make portraits and images. I don't know how. Out of despair, I just use paint anyway. Suddenly the things you make coagulate and take on just the shape you intend. Totally accurate marks, which are outside representational marks.

Much bending breaks the bow; much unbending the mind.

The human understanding, when any preposition has been once laid down... forces everything else to add fresh support and confirmation; and although more cogent and abundant instances may exist to the contrary, yet it either does not observe them or it despises them, or it gets rid of and rejects them by some distinction, with violent and injurious prejudice, rather than sacrifice the authority of its first conclusions.

Wounds cannot be cured without searching.

It is as hard and severe a thing to be a true politician as to be truly moral.