“For the artist, the color, the bouquet, the tinkling of the spoon on the saucer, are things in the highest degree. He stops at the quality of the sound or the form. He returns to it constantly and is enchanted with it.”

“The highest form of bliss is living with a certain degree of folly.”

“How can he talk like that?" thought Pierre. He considered his friend a model of perfection because Prince Andrew possessed in the highest degree just the very qualities Pierre lacked, and which might be best described as strength of will.”

“Her melodious laughter sounded like the distant tinkling of soft bells and he stored the sound in her temple- his heart.”

“The artist should fear to become the slave of detail. He should strive to express his thought and not the surface of it. What avails a storm cloud accurate in form and color if the storm is not therein?”

“He who knows the masculine but keeps to the feminine,Becomes the ravine of the world.Being the ravine of the world,He dwells in constant virtue,He returns to the state of the babe.He who knows the white but keeps to the black,Becomes the model of the world.Being the model of the world,He rests in constant virtue,He returns to the infinite.He who knows glory but keeps to disgrace,Becomes the valley of the world.Being the valley of the world,He finds contentment in constant virtue,He returns to the Uncarved Block.”