I roamed the countryside searching for answers to things I did not understand. Why shells existed on the tops of mountains. How the various circles of water form around the spot which has been struck by a stone, and why a bird sustains itself in the air.

Of the original phenomena, light is the most enthralling.

The water which rises in the mountain is the blood which keeps the mountain in life.

Painting embraces and contains within itself all the things which nature produces or which results from the fortuitous actions of men... he is but a poor master who makes only a single figure well.

Vitality and beauty are gifts of Nature for those who live according to its laws.

Experiment is the sole interpreter of the artifices of Nature.