I am a free man, I do not need to copy Petrarch or Boccaccio. My own genius is enough. Let others worry themselves about style and so cease to be themselves. Without a master, without a model, without a guide, without artifice,Igotowork and earnmy living, my well- being, and my fame.What do Ineedmore? Witha goose quill and a few sheets of paper I mock the universe.

-Aretino, Pietro
Quoted in  J H Plumb (ed)  The Horizon Book of the Renaissance (1961, new edn by Penguin,1982).

The Master: records prove the title good: Yet figures fail you, for they cannot say How many men whose names you never knew Are proud to tell their sons they saw you play. They share the sunlight of your summer day Of thirty years; and they, with you, recall How, through those well-wrought centuries, your hand Reshaped the history of bat and ball.

-Aristotle
  'To  John Berry Hobbs on his Seventieth Birthday'.

The disciple is not above his master, nor the servant above his lord.

-Bible (NewTestament)
St Matthew10:24.

Jesus saith unto her,Woman, why weepest thou? whom seekest thou? She, supposing him to be the gardener, saith unto him, Sir, if thou have borne him hence, tell me where thou hast laid him, and I will take him away.Jesus saith unto her, Mary. She turned herself, and saith unto him, Rabboni; which is to say, Master.Jesus saith unto her,Touch me not; for I am not yet ascended to my Father: but go to my brethren, and say unto them, I ascend unto my Father, and your Father; and to my God, and your God.

-Bible (NewTestament)
St  John 20:15^17. The Latin Vulgate translation of the Bible, ascribed to St  Jerome, famously renders the phrase'Do not touch me'as 'Noli me tangere'.

Marriage, n. The state or condition of a community Billings consisting of a master, a mistress and two slaves, making in all, two.

-Bierce, Ambrose Gwinett
  The Cynic's Word Book. Retitled  The Devil's Dictionary (1911).

  'The question is,'said Humpty Dumpty,'which is to be masteröthat's all.'

-Dodgson
Through the Looking-Glass, ch.6,'Humpty Dumpty'.

A man ceases to be a beginner in any given science and becomes a master in that science when he has learned that†he isgoing to be a beginner all his life.

-Collingwood, R(obin) G(eorge)
  New Leviathan, pt.1ch.1.

It is a misfortune that necessity has induced men to accord greater licensetothis formidable engine, inorder to obtain liberty, than can be borne with less important objects in view; for the press, like fire, is an excellent servant, but a terrible master.

-Cooper,James Fenimore
  The American Democrat,'On the Press'.

In order to become the master, the politician poses as the servant.

-de Gaulle, Charles
Attributed.

   The walls of spiders' legs are made, Well mortised and finely laid; He was the master of his trade It curiously builded; The windows of the eyes of cats, And for the roof, instead of slats, Is covered with the skins of bats, With moonshine that are gilded.

-Drayton, Michael
  Nymphidia, the Court of Fairy.

Lord, make me an instrument of Your peace. Where there is hatred, let me sow love; Where there is injury, pardon; Where there is doubt, faith; Where there is despair, hope; Where there is darkness, light; Where there is sadness, joy. O divine Master, grant that I may not so much seek To be consoled as to console; To be understood as to understand; To be loved as to love. For it is in giving that we receive; It is in pardoning that we are pardoned; And it is in dying that we are born to eternal life.

-Franklin, Benjamin
Attributed prayer, traditionally known as the'Prayer of St Francis'.

The village master taught his little school; A man severe he was and stern to view; I knew him well, and every truant knew; Well had the boding tremblers learned to trace The day's disasters in his morning face; Full well they laughed, with counterfeited glee, At all his jokes, for manya joke had he.

-Goldsmith, Oliver
  The Deserted Village, l.196^202.

O Virgile! o"   poe'  te! o"   mon ma|"tre divin! OhVirgil! Oh poet! Oh my divine master!

-Hugo,Victor Marie
' 1837  Les Voix inte¤  rieures, no.7,'A  Virgile'.

   And boys, be in nothing so moderate as in love of man, a clever servant, insufferable master.

-Jeffers, (John) Robinson
  Tamar and Other Poems,'Shine, Perishing Republic'.

The church must be reminded that it is not the master or servant of the state, but rather the conscience of the state.

-King, Martin LutherJr
  Strength to Love.

And only the Master shall praise us, and only the Master shall blame; And no one shall work for money, and no one shall work for fame, But each for the joy of working, and each, in his separate star, Shall draw theThing ashesees It for the God of Things as They are!

-Kipling, (Joseph) Rudyard
  'When Earth's Last Picture is Painted'.

If you can keep your head when all about you Are losing theirs and blaming it on you; If you can trust yourself when all men doubt you, But make allowance for their doubting too; If you can wait and not be tired by waiting, Or being lied about, don't deal in lies, Or being hated, don't give way to hating, And yet don't look too good, nor talk too wise; If you can dreamöand not make dreams your master; If you can thinköand not make thoughts your aim, If you can meet withTriumph and Disaster And treat those two imposters just the same.

-Kipling, (Joseph) Rudyard
  Rewards and Fairies,'Ifö'.

L'esclave n'a qu'un ma|"tre; l'ambitieux en a autantqu'il ya des gens utiles a'   sa fortune. A slave has but one master; an ambitious person has as many as he needs to make his fortune.

-La Bruye'  re,Jean de
  Les Caracte'  res ou les m½urs de ce sie'  cle,'Du c½ur', no.70.

   To devise is the work of the master, to execute the act of the servant.

-Leonardo daVinci
Treatise on Painting (published1651, translatedby A P McMahon, 1956).

He is a poor disciple who does not excel his master.

-Leonardo daVinci
Quoted in Irma  A Richter (ed) Selections from the Notebooks of Leonardo da Vinci (1977).