Let the painter composing narrative pictures take pleasure in wealth and variety, and avoid repeating any part that occurs in it, so that the uniqueness and abundance attract people to it and delight the eye of the observer. I say that a narrative painting requires (depending on the scene), wherever the eye falls, a mixture of men of diverse appearances, of diverse ages and dress, combined together with women, children, dogs, horses, buildings, fields, and hills.

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

The poet ranks far below the painter in the representation of visible things, and far below the musician in that of invisible things.

The human being, creature of eyes, needs the image.

The human foot is a masterpiece of engineering and a work of art.

While I thought that I was learning how to live, I have been learning how to die.

Of the four elements water is the second in weight and the second in respect of mobility. It is never at rest until it unites with the sea.