Quotes to inspire and reflect

The spirit desires to remain with its body, because, without the organic instruments of that body, it can neither act, nor feel anything.

There is nothing which deceives us as much as our own judgement.

The study of what is excellent is food for the mind and body.

It is ill to praise, and worse to blame, the thing which you do not understand.

Being engulfed in practice without delicate knowledge related to it, is in many ways like entering a ship without knowing where it is headed.

Those who, in debate, appeal to their qualifications, argue from memory, not from understanding.

The soul can never be corrupted with the corruption of the body, but it is like the wind which causes the sound of the organ, and which ceases to produce a good effect when a pipe is spoilt.

Poor is the man who desires a lot.

Love, Fear, and Esteem, Write these on three stones.

The Book of the science of Mechanics must precede the Book of useful inventions.

When you are alone you are all your own.

To discover the soul living in s o m e b o dy ’s b o dy, we w at ch t h e surrounding of the body, and if it’s messy and disordered, so is the soul.

That which has no limitations, has no form.

One can have no more mastery over the environment, than one has over himself.

To be a winner you must want to win but must know of the chance of losing and must not fear of it.

What is fair in men, passes away, but not so in art.

First study the science, and then practice the art which is born of that science.

All thoughts start from emotions.

Virtue is our true wealth and the true reward of its possessor; it cannot be lost, it never deserts us until life leaves us.

Of the four elements water is the second in weight and the second in respect of mobility. It is never at rest until it unites with the sea

Drawing is based upon perspective, which is nothing else than a thorough knowledge of the function of the eye.

Your brain is much better than you think; just use it!

Men of lofty genius when they are doing the least work are most active.

The worst evil which can befall the artist is that his work should appear good in his own eyes.

O sleepers! what a thing is slumber! Sleep resembles death. Ah, why then dost thou not work in such wise as that after death thou mayst retain a resemblance to perfect life, when, during life, thou art in sleep so like to the hapless dead?

When Fortune comes, seize her in front with a sure hand, because behind she is bald.

People reveal themselves completely only when they are thrown out of the customary conditions of their life.

A beautiful body perishes, but a work of art dies not.

The supreme misfortune is when theory outstrips performance.

Wood feeds the fire which burns it.

The beginnings and ends of shadow lie between the light and darkness and may be infinitely diminished and infinitely increased. Shadow is the means by which bodies display their form. The forms of bodies could not be understood in detail but for shadow.

Look at light and admire its beauty. Close your eyes, and then look again: what you saw is no longer there; and what you will see later is not yet.

Science is the observation of things possible, whether present or past; prescience is the knowledge of things 50 which may come to pass, though but slowly.

That painter who has no doubts will achieve little.

There is no higher or lower knowledge, but one only, flowing out of experimentation.

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.

The eye which turns from a white object in the light of the sun and goes into a less fully lighted place will see everything as dark.

I’m not contented to capture the world. I want to change it.

Whatever you do in life, if you want to be creative and intelligent, and develop your brain, you must do everything with the awareness that everything, in some way, connects to everything else.

Truly man is the king of beasts, for his brutality exceeds them. We live by the death of others. We are burial places.

Tears come from the heart and not from the brain.

A clever man without wisdom is like a beautiful flower without fragrance.

Science is the captain, and practice the soldiers.

The painter must be solitary. For if you are alone you are completely yourself, but if you are accompanied by a single companion, you are only half yourself.

Good culture is born of a good disposition; and since the cause is more to be praised than the effect, I will rather praise a good disposition without culture, 47 t h a n g o o d c u l t u r e w i t h o u t t h e disposition.

Nature alone is the master of true genius.

Be a mirror, absorb everything around you and still remain the same.

All knowledge which ends in words will die as quickly as it came to life, with the exception of the written word: which is its mechanical part.