“I love those who can smile in trouble, who can gather strength from distress, and grow brave by reflection. ‘Tis the business of little minds to shrink, but they whose heart is firm, and whose conscience approves their conduct, will pursue their principles unto death”
“If you are alone you belong entirely to yourself. If you are accompanied by even one companion you belong only half to yourself or even less in proportion to the thoughtlessness of his conduct and if you have more than one companion you will fall more deeply into the same plight.”
“The greatest deception men suffer is from their own opinions.”
“Painting is poetry that is seen rather than felt, and poetry is painting that is felt rather than seen.”
“The painter has the Universe in his mind and hands.”
“Nothing can be loved or hated unless it is first understood.”
“The noblest pleasure is the joy of understanding.”
“As a well spent day brings happy sleep, so life well used brings happy death.”
“Where the spirit does not work with the hand, there is no art.”
“Intellectual passion drives out sensuality. ”
“An average human looks without seeing, listens without hearing, touches without feeling, eats without tasting, moves without physical awareness, inhales without awareness of odour or fragrance, and talks without thinking.”
“Blinding ignorance does mislead us. O! Wretched mortals, open your eyes!”
“A poet knows he has achieved perfection not when there is nothing left to add, but when there is nothing left to take away.”
“Learning is the only thing the mind never exhausts, never fears, and never regrets.”
“While human ingenuity may devise various inventions to the same ends, it will never devise anything more beautiful, nor more simple, nor more to the purpose than nature does, because in her inventions nothing is lacking and nothing is superfluous.”
“Anyone who conducts an argument by appealing to authority is not using his intelligence; he is just using his memory.”
“I awoke only to find that the rest of the world was still asleep.”
“Man has much power of discourse which for the most part is vain and false; animals have but little, but it is useful and true, and a small truth is better than a great lie.”
“Truly man is the king of beasts, for his brutality exceeds them. We live by the death of others. We are burial places.”
“Having wandered some distance among gloomy rocks, I came to the entrance of a great cavern … Two contrary emotions arose in me: fear and desire–fear of the threatening dark cavern, desire to see whether there were any marvelous things in it.”
Art, Literature & Life 