When I investigate and when I discover that the forces of the heavens and the planets are within ourselves, then truly I seem to be living among the gods.

The function of the painter is to render... the visible surface so that at a certain distance... and position it appears... like the body itself.

A person can do anything if they only will it strongly enough.

Buildings have been made because of man.

Painting contains a divine force which not only makes absent men present, as friendship is said to do, but moreover makes the dead seem almost alive.

We must always take from nature what we paint and always choose the most beautiful things.

Nothing overshadows truth so much as authority.