A painter should begin every canvas with a wash of black, be... - Leonardo da Vinci

"Once you have tasted flight, you will forever walk the earth with your eyes turned skyward, for there you have been, and there you will always long to return."

"It had long since come to my attention that people of accomplishment rarely sat back and let things happen to them. They went out and happened to things."

"As every divided kingdom falls, so every mind divided between many studies confounds and saps itself."

"The acquisition of knowledge is always of use to the intellect, because it may thus drive out useless things and retain the good. For nothing can be loved or hated unless it is first known."

"Marriage is like putting your hand into a bag of snakes in the hope of pulling out an eel."