So now, from this mad passion Which made me take art for an idol and a king I have learnt the burden of error that it bore And what misfortune springs from man's desire... The world's frivolities have robbed me of the time That I was given for reflecting upon God.

Let whoever may have attained to so much as to have the power of drawing know that he holds a great treasure.

An artist does his most difficult work when he steps back from the blank canvas and thinks about what he is going to create.

If I love in thee, beloved, only what thou lovest most, do not be angry; for so one spirit is enamoured of another.

I am still learning. (at age 87)

Love is a beautiful image Imagined or seen within the heart, The friend of virtue and gentility.

Every beauty which is seen here by persons of perception resembles more than anything else that celestial source from which we all are come.