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

A common error of ignorance is to maintain that what one does not know does not exist.

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.

Errors accumulate in the sketch and compound in the model.

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

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.

It is very rarely granted even to Nature herself to produce anything absolutely perfect in every part.