It is a far worthier thing to read by the light of experience than to adorn oneself with the labors of others.

When you look at a wall spotted with stains...you may discover a resemblance to various landscapes, beautiful with mountains, rivers, rocks, trees. Or again, you may see battles and figures in action, or strange faces and costumes, and an endless variety of objects which you could reduce to complete and well-drawn figures.

It is an acknowledged fact that we perceive errors in the work of others more readily than in our own.

After painting comes Sculpture, a very noble art, but one that does not in the execution require the same supreme ingenuity as the art of painting, since in two most important and difficult particulars, in foreshortening and in light and shade, for which the painter has to invent a process, sculpture is helped by nature. Moreover, Sculpture does not imitate color which the painter takes pains to attune so that the shadows accompany the lights.

Many have made a trade of delusions and false miracles, deceiving the stupid multitudes.

In life beauty perishes, but not in art.

Your brain is much better than you think; just use it!