Everyone holds his fortune in his own hands, like a sculptor the raw material he will fashion into a figure. But it's the same with that type of artistic activity as with all others: We are merely born with the capability to do it. The Skill to mold the material into what we want must be learned and attentively cultivated.

How many kings are governed by their ministers, how many ministers by their secretaries? Who, in such cases, is really the chief?

Give me the benefit of your convictions, if you have any; but keep your doubts to yourself, for I have enough of my own.

If God had wanted me otherwise, He would have created me otherwise.

Objects in pictures should so be arranged as by their very position to tell their own story.

Few are open to conviction, but the majority of men are open to persuasion

One must not criticize that which is common since it remains always the same.