The organ of perception acts more readily than judgment.

I'm not contented to capture the world. I want to change it.

A painter should begin every canvas with a wash of black, because all things in nature are dark except where exposed by the light.

The fox when it sees a flock of herons or magpies or birds of that kind, suddenly flings himself on the ground with his mouth open to look as he were dead; and these birds want to peck at his tongue, and he bites off their heads.

It's easier to resist at the beginning than at the end.

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

As every divided kingdom falls, so every mind divided between many studies confounds and saps itself.