The sun gives spirit and life to the plants and the earth nourishes them with moisture.

The cat is nature's masterpiece.

The first of all simple colours is White ... We shall set down White for the representative of light, without which no colour can be seen; Yellow for the earth; Green for water; Blue for air; Red for fire; and Black for total darkness.

It is better to imitate ancient than modern work.

O painter skilled in anatomy, beware lest the undue prominence of the bones, sinews and muscles cause you to become a wooden painter from the desire to make your nude figures reveal all.

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

I am not to blame for putting forward, in the course of my work on science, any general rule derived from a previous conclusion.