Line is the means by which man accounts for the effect of light on objects, but in nature there are no lines — in nature everything is continuous and whole.

Perhaps it’s wrong to draw a single line: Wouldn’t it be better to deal with a figure from the center, concentrating first on the projecting parts which take the light most readily, then proceeding to the darker portions? Isn’t that the method of the sun, the divine painter of the universe? Oh nature, nature! Who has ever plumbed your secrets? There’s no escaping it; too much knowledge, like too much ignorance, leads to a negation. My work is . . . my doubt!

— Honoré de Balzac, The Unknown Masterpiece