The true work of art is but a shadow of the divine perfection.

Beauty depends on purpose. It is in the elements best suited to their purpose or aim that beauty shines forth most strongly.

Art lives on constraint and dies of freedom.

For those who feel it, nothing makes the soul so religious and pure as the endeavor to create something perfect; for God is perfection, and whoever strives after it, is striving after something divine. True painting is only the image of the perfection of God, a shadow of the pencil with which he paints, a melody, a striving after harmony.

The promises of this world are, for the most part, vain phantoms; and to confide in one's self, and become something of worth and value is the best and safest course.

The power of one fair face makes my love sublime, for it has weaned my heart from low desires.

My soul can find no staircase to Heaven unless it be through Earth's loveliness.