The memory of benefits is a frail defence against ingratitude.
The light and heat of the universe comes from the sun, and its cold and darkness from the withdrawal of the sun.
I have found that, in the composition of the human body as compared with the bodies of animals, the organs of sense are duller and coarser. Thus, it is composed of less ingenious instruments, and of spaces less capacious for receiving the faculties of sense.
Men and words are ready made, and you, O Painter, if you do not know how to make your figures move, are like an orator who knows not how to use his words.
All the bystanders at an event worthy of note adopt various gestures of admiration when contemplating the occurrence.
The painter or draftsman ought to be solitary, in order that the well-being of the body not sap the vigour of the mind.
The lover is drawn by the thing loved, as the sense is by that which it perceives...
I am still hopeful. A falcon, Time. But the coincidence is probably accidental.
Practice should always be based upon a sound knowledge of theory.
A natural action is accomplished in the briefest manner.
Slender certainty is better than portentous falsehood.
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.
It seems that it had been destined before that I should occupy myself so thoroughly with the vulture, for it comes to my mind as a very early memory, when I was still in the cradle, a vulture came down to me, he opened my mouth with his tail and struck me a few times with his tail against my lips.
Nature appears to have been the cruel stepmother rather than the mother of many animals.
Man and animals are in reality vehicles and conduits of food, tombs of animals, hostels of Death, coverings that consume, deriving life by the death of others.
Lust is the cause of generation.
Such is the supreme folly of man that he labours so as to labour no more.
The imagination is to the effect as the shadow to the opaque body which causes the shadow.
We should not desire the impossible.
Every loss which we incur leaves behind it vexation in the memory, save the greatest loss of all, that is, death, which annihilates the memory, together with life.