O.A. Battista Quotes

An error doesn't become a mistake until you refuse to correct it.

Beauty is the adjustment of all parts proportionately so that one cannot add or subtract or change without impairing the harmony of the whole.

I certainly consider a great appreciation of painting to be the best indication of a most perfect mind.

One of the hardest things to teach a child is that truth is more important than consequences.

A common error of ignorance is to maintain that what one does not know does not exist.

The greatest weakness of most humans is their hesitancy to tell others how much they love them while they're alive.

No art, however minor, demands less than total dedication if you want to excel in it.

There are times when silence is the best way to yell at the top of your voice.

A man can do all things if he will.

Patience is never more important than when you are at the edge of losing it.

It is very rarely granted even to Nature herself to produce anything absolutely perfect in every part.

We must always take from nature what we paint and always choose the most beautiful things.

Man can learn a lot from fishing - when the fish are biting no problem in the world is big enough to be remembered.

There is no art which has not had its beginnings in things full of errors. Nothing is at the same time both new and perfect.

When I investigate and when I discover that the forces of the heavens and the planets are within ourselves, then truly I seem to be living among the gods.

... the movements of the body reveal the movements of the soul.

The city is like a great house, and the house in its turn a small city.

Temptations, unlike opportunities, will always give you many second chances.

One of the most lasting pleasures you can experience is the feeling that comes over you when you genuinely forgive an enemy - whether he knows it or not.

The Arts are learnt by reason and method; they are mastered by practice.

An atheist is a man who looks through a telescope and tries to explain what he can't see.

Tact is the ability to make a person see lightning without letting him feel the bolt.

Knowledge is the best eraser in the world for disharmony, distrust, despair, and the endless physical deficiencies of man.

A dog is one of the remaining reasons why some people can be persuaded to go for a walk.

I would have artists be convinced that the supreme skill and art in painting consists in knowing how to use black and white... because it is light and shade that make objects appear in relief.

Time was when the average person could pay as he goes. Nowadays he has to pay as he comes and goes.

One good thing about punctuality is that it's a sure way to help you enjoy a few minutes of privacy.

The willingness to trust others even when you know you may be taken advantage of is the cornerstone of becoming civilized.

Initiative is to success what a lighted match is to a candle.

You're never quite sure how you feel about a neighbor until a 'For Sale' sign suddenly appears in front of his house.

Work is the best wonder drug ever devised by God.

True love doesn't consist of holding hands, it consists of holding hearts.

Errors accumulate in the sketch and compound in the model.

Knowledge is power, especially when it is hitched to a workhorse.

The best eraser in the world is a good night's sleep.

Praise can be your most valuable asset as long as you don't aim it at yourself.

A person can do anything if they only will it strongly enough.

Men are themselves the source of their own fortune and misfortune.

The function of the painter is to render... the visible surface so that at a certain distance... and position it appears... like the body itself.

Before most people start boasting about their family tree, they already have done a good pruning job.

It was never shameful to learn from any teacher things that are useful to know.

Practice by drawing things large, as if equal in representation and reality. In small drawings every large weakness is easily hidden; in the large, the smallest weakness is easily seen.

Painting contains a divine force which not only makes absent men present, as friendship is said to do, but moreover makes the dead seem almost alive.

The fellow who says he'll meet you halfway usually thinks he's standing on the dividing line.

A happy marriage is the world's best bargain.

The greatest work of an artist is the history of a painting.

As ability goes, so goes our fortune.

Nothing overshadows truth so much as authority.

Those who have dissected or inspected many [bodies] have at least learnt to doubt; while others who are ignorant of anatomy and do not take the trouble to attend it are in no doubt at all.

Philosophers say that nothing can be seen that is neither illuminated nor colored.