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

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

Painting is possessed of divine power, for not only does it make the absent present, but also makes the dead almost alive.

Beauty is the adjustment of all parts proportionately so that one cannot add or subtract or change without impairing the harmony of the whole.

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.

What is painting but the act of embracing, by means of art, the surface of the pool?

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