Quotes to inspire and reflect

A man was desired to rise from bed because the sun was already up. He replied: “If I had as far to go and as much 102 to do as he has, I should be up by now; but having but a little way to go, I shall not get up yet.

I abhor the supreme folly of those who blame the disciples of nature in defiance of those masters who were themselves her pupils.

There is no result in nature without a cause; understand the cause and you will have no need of the experiment.

O Time with your teethy years! You swallow up all things little by little in a slow-motion, wrinkling process of dying.

The instant the atmosphere is illuminated it will be filled with an infinite number of images which are produced by the various bodies and colors assembled in it. And the eye is the target, a lodestone, of these images.

Experience never misleads; what you are misled by is only your judgment, and this misleads you by anticipating results from experience of a kind that is not produced by your experiments.

The knowledge of the past times and of the places of the earth is both an ornament and nutriment to the human mind.

Experience, the interpreter between creative nature and the human race, teaches the action of nature among mortals: how under the constraint of necessity she cannot act otherwise than as reason, who steers her helm, teaches her to act.

The eye transmits its own image through the air to all the objects which face it, and also receives them on its own surface, whence the “sensus communis

The memory of benefits is a frail defense against ingratitude.

The motions of men must be such as suggest their dignity or their baseness.

The great man presides over all his states of consciousness with obstinate rigor.

Nothing is so much to be feared as Evil Report.

Fear arises sooner than anything else.

Oh! Speculators on things, boast not of knowing the things that nature ordinarily brings about; but rejoice if you know the end of those things which you yourself device.

All the bystanders at an event worthy of note adopt various gestures of admiration when contemplating the occurrence.

A good painter has two main objects to paint, man and the intention of his soul. The former is easy, the latter hard as he has to represent it by the attitude and movement of the limbs.

Make your faces so that they do not all have the same expression, as one sees with most painters, but give them different expression, according to age, complexion, and good or bad character.

It is a far worthier thing to read by the light of experience than to adorn oneself with the labors of others.

The bones of the Dead will be seen to govern the fortunes of him who moves them.

The fame of the rich man dies with him; the fame of the treasure, and not of the man who possessed it, remains.

Old age takes in part savory wisdom for its food, see to that your old age will not lack in nourishment.

A luminous body will appear more brilliant in proportion as it is surrounded by deeper shadow.

Necessity is a guardian in Nature.

That which can be lost cannot be deemed riches.

An infinite number of men will sell publicly and unhindered things of the very highest price, without leave from the Master of it; while it never was theirs nor in their power; and human justice will not prevent it.

To speak well of a base man is much the same as speaking ill of a good man.

The lover is drawn by the thing loved, as the sense is by that which it perceives

Some promises and time disappoint us.

Every action done by nature is done in the shortest way.

Nature varies the seed according to the variety of the things she desires to produce in the world.

To lie is vile, to tell truth is excellent, if not noble.

The human being, creature of eyes, needs the image.

The first object of the painter is to make a flat plane appear as a body in relief and projecting from that plane.

Good writing comes from good talent.

We may call painting the grandchild of nature.

The boundaries of bodies are the least of all things.

How painting surpasses all human works by reason of the subtle possibilities which it contains.

Here is a thing which the more you fear and avoid it the nearer you approach to it, and this is misery; the more you flee from it the more miserable and restless you will become.

Our body is dependent on heaven and heaven on the Spirit.

Truth is so excellent, that if it praises but small things they become noble.

Let not your rage or malice destroy a life.

One day the world will look upon research upon animals as it now looks upon research on human beings.

Perspective is a most subtle discovery in mathematical studies, for by means of lines it causes to appear distant that which is near, and large that which is small.

It is the infinite alone that cannot be attained, for if it could it would become finite.

He who in reasoning cites authority is making use of his memory rather than of his intellect.

Every loss which we incur leaves behind it vexation in the memory, save the greatest loss of all, that is, death, which 89 annihilates the memory, together with life.

Wherever good fortune enters, envy lays siege to the place and attacks it; and when it departs, sorrow and repentance remain behind.