What strip mining is to nature the art market has become to culture.

Essentially, perspective is a form of abstraction. It simplifies the relationship between eye, brain and object. It is an ideal view, imagined as being seen by a one-eyed, motionless person who is clearly detached from what he sees. It makes a God of the spectator, who becomes the person on whom the whole world converges, the Unmoved Onlooker.

There is virtue in virtuosity, especially today, when it protects us from the tedious spectacle of ineptitude.

Confidence is the prize given to the mediocre

It was a secular cathedral, dedicated to the rites of travel.

On the whole, money does artists much more good than harm. The idea that one benefits from cold water, crusts and debt collectors is now almost extinct, like belief in the reformatory power of flogging.

The greater the artist, the greater the doubt.