A man of supreme folly: his life flies away while he is merely hoping to enjoy it.

There shall be wings! If the accomplishment be not for me, 'tis for some other. The spirit cannot die; and man, who shall know all and shall have wings.

One can have no more mastery over the environment, than one has over himself.

If we make mistakes in our first compositions and do not know them, we may not amend them.

One painter ought never to imitate the manner of any other; because in that case he cannot be called the child of nature, but the grandchild. It is always best to have recourse to nature, which is replete with such abundance of objects, than to the productions of other masters, who learnt everything from her.

The part always has a tendency to reunite with its whole in order to escape from its imperfection.

There is no higher or lower knowledge, but one only, flowing out of experimentation.