Men in great place are thrice servants: servants of the sovereign or state, servants of fame, and servants of business.

I loathe my own face, and I've done self-portraits because I've had nobody else to do.

When I paint I am ageless, I just have the pleasure or the difficulty of painting.

It's always hopeless to talk about painting - one never does anything but talk around it.

It is true, that a little philosophy inclineth man’s mind to atheism; but depth in philosophy bringeth men’s minds about to religion. For while the mind of man looketh upon second causes scattered, it may sometimes rest in them, and go no further; but when it beholdeth the chain of them, confederate and linked together, it must needs fly to Providence and Deity.

Books will speak plain when counselors blanch.

Rather to excite your judgment briefly than to inform it tediously.