Racial prejudices are indication of a disturbed and potentially unstable society.

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.

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

People sometimes tell me that they prefer barbarism to civilisation. I doubt if they have given it a long enough trial. Like the people of Alexandria, they are bored by civilisation; but all the evidence suggests that the boredom of barbarism is infinitely greater.

To hurry through the rise and fall of a fine, full sentence is like defying the role of time in human life.

It is often said that Leonardo drew so well because he knew about things; it is truer to say that he knew about things because he drew so well.

Leonardo is the Hamlet of art history whom each of us must recreate for himself.