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

In time of war all countries behave equally badly, because the power of action is handed over to stupid and obstinate men.

No nude, however abstract, should fail to arouse in the spectator some vestige of erotic feeling... The desire to grasp and be united with another human is so fundamental a part of our nature that our judgement of what is known as 'pure form' is inevitably influenced by it, and one of the difficulties of the nude as a subject for art is that these instincts cannot be hidden.

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

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

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

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.