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.

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.

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

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

A man can do all things if he will.

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

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

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

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

Maybe I'm too late to be your first. But right now, I'm preparing myself to be your last.

He wanted to imprison his nameless misery in words.

I sat staring, staring, staring - half lost, learning a new language or rather the same language in a different dialect. So still were the big woods where I sat, sound might not yet have been born.

PRESIDENT, n. The leading figure in a small group of men of whom - and of whom only - it is positively known that immense numbers of their countrymen did not want any of them for President.

Im sick and tired of politicians beating up on the IRS. We have the best and fairest tax-collection system in the world.

Many of the greatest tyrants on the records of history have begun their reigns in the fairest manner. But the truth is, this unnatural power corrupts both the heart and the understanding.

Truth is the hardest substance in the world to pin down. But the one certainty is the awesome penalty exacted sooner or later from a society whose reporters stop trying.

God has arrived. I met him on the 5:15 train.

We take a natural interest in novelties, but it is against nature to take an interest in familiar things.

We're here to get each other through this thing, whatever it is.