Oysters open completely when the moon is full; and when the crab sees one it throws a piece of stone or seaweed into it and the oyster cannot close again so that it serves the crab for meat. Such is the fate of him who opens his mouth too much and thereby puts himself at the mercy of the listener.
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.
Every now and then go away, have a little relaxation, for when you come back to your work your judgment will be surer.
Every action needs to be prompted by a motive.
Even the richest soil, if left uncultivated will produce the rankest weeds.
Just as food eaten without appetite is a tedious nourishment, so does study without zeal damage the memory by not assimilating what it absorbs.
Painting is concerned with all the 10 attributes of sight; which are: Darkness, Light, Solidity and Colour, Form and Position, Distance and Propinquity, Motion and Rest.
An artist’s studio should be a small space because small rooms discipline the mind and large ones distract it.
When you put your hand in a flowing stream, you touch the last that has gone before and the first of what is still to come.
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.
Just as iron rusts from disuse, even so does inaction spoil the intellect.
Nature varies the seed according to the variety of the things she desires to produce in the world.
One day the world will look upon research upon animals as it now looks upon research on human beings.
The discovery of a good wine is increasingly better for mankind than the discovery of a new star.
Mechanics is the paradise of the mathematical sciences because by means of it one comes to the fruits of mathematics.
I have discovered that a screw-shaped device such as this, if it is well made from starched linen, will rise in the air if turned quickly.
Principles for the Development of a Complete Mind: Study the science of art. Study the art of science. Develop your senses- especially learn how to see. Realize that everything connects to everything else.
Who sows virtue reaps honor.
Art lives from constraints and dies from freedom.
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.