The men of experiment are like the ant; they only collect and use. But the bee...gathers its materials from the flowers of the garden and of the field, but transforms and digests it by a power of its own.

The painter will produce pictures of little merit if he takes the works of others as his standard.

Study without desire spoils the memory, and it retains nothing that it takes in.

Our life is made by the death of others.

Those who are inspired by a model other than Nature, labor in vain.

When that which loves is united to the thing beloved it can rest there; when the burden is laid down it finds rest there. There will be eternal fame also for the inhabitants of that town, constructed and enlarged by him.

Common Sense is that which judges the things given to it by other senses.