I think that one of the things is that, if you are going to decide to be a painter, you have got to decide that you are not going to be afraid of making a fool of yourself. I think another thing is to be able to find subjects which really absorb you to try and do. I feel that without a subject you automatically go back into decoration because you haven't got the subject which is always eating into you to bring it back - and the greatest art always returns you to the vulnerability of the human situation.

Science is but an image of the truth.

Since custom is the principal magistrate of man's life, let men by all means endeavor to obtain good customs.

In nature things move violently to their place, and calmly in their place.

The human understanding is no dry light, but receives an infusion from the will and affections... What a man had rather were true he more readily believes.

A picture should be a re-creation of an event rather than an illustration of an object; but there is no tension in the picture unless there is a struggle with the object.

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."