I am always afraid of a fool. One cannot be sure that he is not a knave as well.

Fame is the inheritance not of the dead, but of the living. It is we who look back with lofty pride to the great names of antiquity.

Poverty is the test of civility and the touchstone of friendship.

To speak highly of one with whom we are intimate is a species of egotism. Our modesty as well as our jealousy teaches us caution on this subject.

Satirists gain the applause of others through fear, not through love.

Art must anchor in nature, or it is the sport of every breath of folly.

The humblest painter is a true scholar; and the best of scholars the scholar of nature.