The nude does not simply represent the body, but relates it, by analogy, to all structures that have become part of our imaginative experience.

Few people can look at a painting longer than it takes to peel an orange and eat it.

The great achievement of the Catholic Church lay in harmonizing, civilizing the deepest impulses of ordinary, ignorant people.

It would be unfair to say that I prefer the back of a book to its contents, but it is true that the sight of a lot of books gives me the hope that I may some day read them, which sometimes develops into the belief that I have read them.

However much the various phases of the French Revolution may have modelled themselves on Roman history the early phase on Republican virtue, the later on Imperial grandeur the fact remains that classicism depended on a fixed and rational philosophy; whereas the spirit of the Revolution was one of change and of emotion.

I believe in the God-given genius of certain individuals, and I value a society that makes their existence possible.

The Cathedrals were built to the glory of God; New York was built to the glory of Mammon.