A diamond is just a lump of coal that stuck to its job.

Men wrongly lament the flight of time, blaming it for being too swift; they do not perceive that its passage is sufficiently long, but a good memory, which nature has given to us, causes things long past to seem present.

First study the science, and then practice the art which is born of that science.

Savage is he who saves himself.

We might say that the earth has the spirit of growth; that its flesh is the soil.

Constancy does not begin, but is that which perseveres.

Affective gestures pointing to things near either in time or space should be made with the hand not very far from the body of the person pointing; and if these things are distant, the hand of the painter should be more extended and the face turned toward the person to whom he is addressing the demonstration.