All great civilisations, in their early stages, are based on success in war.

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.

The nude gains its enduring value from the fact that it reconciles several contrary states. It takes the most sensual and immediately interesting object, the human body, and puts it out of reach of time and desire; it takes the most purely rational concept of which mankind is capable, mathematical order, and makes it a delight to the senses; and it takes the vague fears of the unknown and sweetens them by showing that the gods are like men and may be worshiped for their life-giving beauty rather than their death-dealing powers.

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

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.

Art...must do something more than give pleasure: it should relate to our own life so as to increase our energy of spirit.

We can destroy ourselves by cynicism and disillusion, just as effectively as by bombs.