Quotes to inspire and reflect

The merit of painting lies in the exactness of reproduction. Painting is a science and all sciences are based on mathematics. No human inquiry can be a science unless it pursues its path through m a t h e m a t i c a l e x p o s i t i o n a n d demonstration.

Perspective is the rein and rudder of painting.

Thirst will parch your tongue and your body will waste through lack of sleep ere you can describe in words that which painting instantly sets before the eye.

He who can copy can do.

Not to punish evil is equivalent to authorizing it.

One’s thoughts turn towards Hope.

What induces you, oh man, to depart from your home in town, to leave parents and friends, and go to the countryside 72 over mountains and valleys, if it is not for the beauty of the world of nature?

To me it seems that those sciences are vain and full of error which are not born of experience, mother of all certainty, first-hand experience which in its origins, or means, or end has passed through one of the five senses.

Every part is disposed to unite with the whole, that it may thereby escape from its own incompleteness.

The painter will produce pictures of little merit if he takes the works of others as his standard.

The eye which sees all objects reversed retains the images for some time.

Test knowledge through experience, be prepared to make mistakes, and be persistent about it.

Supreme happiness will be the greatest cause of misery, and the perfection of wisdom the occasion of folly.

It is better to imitate ancient than modern work.

I say that the power of vision extends through the visual rays to the surface of non-transparent bodies, while the power possessed by these bodies extends to the power of vision.

For in truth great love is born of great knowledge of the thing loved.

I shall do down in history as the man who opened a door!

An artist who lacks the power of self-criticism accomplishes but little. It is good if your work stands higher than your own opinion of it; bad if it is on the same level. 68 But it is a great disaster if your work stands lower than your judgment of it.

We might say that the earth has the spirit of growth; that its flesh is the soil.

The water which rises in the mountain is the blood which keeps the mountain in life.

Black is like a broken vessel, which is deprived of the capacity to contain anything.

Fire destroys all sophistry, that is deceit; and maintains truth alone, that is gold.

A long life is a life well spent.

He who possesses most must be most afraid of loss.

Every action needs to be prompted by a motive. To know and to will are two operations of the human mind. Discerning, judging, deliberating are acts of the human mind.

Constancy does not begin, but is that which perseveres.

No one should ever imitate the style of another because, with regard to art, he will be called a nephew and not a child of nature.

Do not imitate one another’s style. If you do, so far as your art is concerned you will be called a grandson, rather than the son of Nature.

Common Sense is that which judges the things given to it by other senses.

There is nothing that deceives us more than our own judgment when used to give an opinion on our own works. It is sound in judging the work of our enemies but not that of our friends, for hate and love are two of the most powerfully motivating factors found among living things.

The painter’s mind is a copy of the divine mind, since it operates freely in creating the many kinds of animals, plants, fruits, landscapes, countrysides, ruins, and awe inspiring places.

To such an extent does nature delight and abound in variety that among her trees there is not one plant to be found which is exactly like another; and not only among the plants, but among the boughs, the leaves and the fruits, you will not find one which is exactly similar to another.

Happy will they be who lend ear to the words of the dead.

A deaf and dumb person who sees two men in conversation may nevertheless understand from the attitudes and gestures of the speakers, how well their discussion is getting along.

Nature appears to have been the cruel stepmother rather than the mother of many animals.

For those colors which you wish to be beautiful, always first prepare a pure white ground.

Any color is more distinctly seen when opposed to its contrary: thus, black on white, blear near yellow, green near red, and so on.

It is ordained that to the ambitious, who derive no satisfaction from the gifts of life and the beauty of the world, life shall be a cause of suffering, and they shall possess neither the profit nor the beauty of the world.

The art of procreation and the members employed therein are so repulsive, that if it were not for the beauty of the faces and the adornments of the actors and the pent-up impulse, nature would lose the human species.

A bird is an instrument working according to mathematical law, which instrument it is within the capacity of man to reproduce with all its movements.

A wave is never found alone, but is mingled with the other waves.

Motion is created by the destruction of balance.

I roamed the countryside searching for answers to things I did not understand. Why shells existed on the tops of mountains. How the various circles of water form around the spot which has been struck by a stone, and why a bird sustains itself in the air.

Threats alone, are the weapons of the threatened man.

He who never puts his trust in any man will never be deceived.

While you are alone you are entirely your own master and if you have one companion you are but half your own, and the less so in proportion to the indiscretion of his behavior.

Of the original phenomena, light is the most enthralling.

Experience does not err. Only your judgments err by expecting from her what is not in her power.