“A painting in a museum hears more ridiculous opinions than anything else in the world.”

“On the opposite page, there was a poem. It described how beauty and truth mattered more than anything else. They were the same thing. But it didn't matter how pretty you painted the world.”

“I believe in walking out of a museum before the paintings you've seen begin to run together. How else can you carry anything away with you in your mind's eye?”

“Samuel thundered that no American factory hand was worth more than eighty cents a day. And yet he could be thankful for the opportunity to pay a hundred thousand dollars or more for a painting by an Italian three centuries dead. And he capped this insult by giving paintings to museums for the spiritual elevation of the poor. The museums were closed on Sundays.”

“She knew that he loved her above all else, more than anything in the world, but only for his own sake.”

“There was no end to the things that happened to sheep unless they had a shepherd who cared more about them than anything else in the world.”