O time! swift devourer of all created things!
It is an acknowledged fact that we perceive errors in the work of others more readily than in our own.
He who has access to the fountain does not go to the water-pot.
He who can copy can do.
When Fortune comes, seize her in front with a sure hand, because behind she is bald.
The first object of the painter is to make a flat plane appear as a body in relief and projecting from that plane.
The wisest and noblest teacher is nature itself.
He who fears dangers will not perish by them.
Nothing is hidden under the sun.
We know more about the movement of celestial bodies than about the soil underfoot.
Many have made a trade of delusions and false miracles, deceiving the stupid multitudes.
It reflects no great honour on a painter to be able to execute one thing well.
To any white body receiving the light from the sun, or the air, the shadows will be of a bluish cast.
Things severed shall be united and shall acquire of themselves such virtue that they shall restore to men their lost memory: – That is the papyrus sheets, which are formed out of several strips and preserve the memory of the thoughts and deeds of men.
Happy will be those who give ear to the words of the dead: – The reading of good works and the observing of their precepts.
A painter was asked why, since he made such beautiful figures, which were but dead things, his children were so ugly; to which the painter replied that he made his pictures by day, and his children by night.
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.
The human being, creature of eyes, needs the image.
The organ of perception acts more readily than judgment.
An arch consists of two weaknesses which, leaning one against the other, make a strength.