And so when studying faces, we do indeed measure them, but as painters, not as surveyors.

Our passions shape our books, repose writes them in the intervals.

Any mental activity is easy if it need not be subjected to reality.

There can be no peace of mind in love, since the advantage one has secured is never anything but a fresh starting-point for future desires.

A work should convey its entire meaning by itself, imposing it on the spectator even before he knows what the subject is.

The bonds that unite us to another human being are sanctified when he or she adopts the same point of view as ourselves in judging one of our imperfections.

Having a body is in itself the greatest threat to the mind... The body encloses the mind in a fortress; before long the mind is besieged on all sides, and in the end the mind has to give itself up.