Science has undertaken to fathom it, and the results which it gains with measures and numbers is of a different value and more lasting than that which the idle sport of the intellects of the older philosophers obtained.

But art, her nobler sister, must pursue the same paths.

To copy life as it is, to reproduce the real as it presents itself, not as it might or must be, is the task which I set myself.

If you would have me carve gods, whom man can not represent to himself except in his own form, allow me also to represent them as reality shows me mortals.

I will form them after the models of the greatest, highest, and best, and also, when the subject permits, in powerful action in accordance with my own power, but always as real men from head to foot.