"..in these matters practice is better than theory, thus I shall not bother to explain my knowledge in detail: 'a word is enough to the wise'."
De arte illuminandi, Unknown author, fourteenth century
"Those who give themselves over to learning and pondering over difficult things will have little trouble with simpler tasks. For nothing is ever so difficult that it may not be gained through study and application."
On painting, Leon Battista Alberti, 1435
"Parisian ladies organised salons and took part, in no secondary role, in the debates that were carried on therein, foreshadowing the Revolutionary Clubs but also following a fashion that already begun in the previous century, with the conversations in the salons of the nature of love. ..through these discussions the conviction began to gain ground - and this is the contribution of women to modern philosophy - that sentiments are not merely a perturbation of the mind, but express, together with reason and sensibility, a third faculty of humankind."
"Dandyism is first and foremost a burning desire to create an original look, on the edge of society's conventional limits. It is sort of cult for oneself, which can do without the pursuit of that happiness one finds in others, in women, for example: a cult that can do without all that we call illusions. It is the pleasure to be had in causing others to marvel, and the satisfaction to be had in never marvelling at anything oneself."
The painter of modern life, Charles Baudelaire, 1869
