Experience is a truer guide than the words of others.

There is no result in nature without a cause; understand the cause and you will have no need of the experiment.

In fact, whatever exists in the universe, in essence, in appearance, in the imagination, the painter has first in his mind and then in his hands ... it lies in his power to create them . . .

The painter who draws by practise and judgment of the eye without the use of reason is like the mirror which reproduces within itself all the objects which are set opposite to it without knowledge of the same.

Truth is so excellent, that if it praises but small things they become noble.

The body of the earth is of the nature of a fish... because it draws water as its breath instead of air.

He who can copy can do.