A man is the facade of a temple wherein all wisdom and all good abide.

I now require this of all pictures, that they domesticate me, not that they dazzle me. Pictures must not be too picturesque. Nothing astonishes men so much as common-sense and plain dealing. All great actions have been simple, and all great pictures are.

Every great man is unique.

There is nothing but is related to us, nothing that does not interest us,--kingdom, college, tree, horse, or iron show,--the rootsof all things are in man.

I am present at the sowing of the seed of the world. With a geometry of sunbeams, the soul lays the foundations of nature.

The mark of a man of the world is absence of pretension.

Society is a masked ball, where every one hides his real character, and reveals it by hiding.