Take pleasure in your dreams; relish your principles and drape

When Giotto di Bondone said, “Take pleasure in your dreams; relish your principles and drape your purest feelings on the heart of a precious lover,” he was not merely speaking of love or art, but of life itself — that eternal dance between vision, virtue, and devotion. His words rise from the heart of the Renaissance, yet they echo a wisdom as old as creation: that the soul of a person is made whole only when dreams, principles, and love are united. For to dream without principle is folly, to live by principle without love is coldness, and to love without dream is blindness. Giotto calls us to weave these three strands together into the golden fabric of a life fully lived.

Giotto, the great painter and architect of fourteenth-century Italy, was among the first to lift art from the rigidity of the Middle Ages into the living breath of the Renaissance. In his frescoes, the saints no longer floated like icons — they walked, they grieved, they embraced. His art was born not of tradition alone, but of dream — of imagination and daring that reached beyond the conventions of his time. Yet Giotto was also a man of principle, rooted in the discipline of his craft, and of feeling, for his works pulsed with human tenderness. This quote, attributed to him, reveals the secret that guided both his art and his soul: that one must take pleasure in dreams, not as idle fancies, but as the sacred seeds of creation; that one must relish principles, for without them, beauty dissolves into chaos; and that one must drape pure feelings upon the world, sharing them with those who awaken the noblest parts of our being.

To take pleasure in your dreams is to delight in the divine fire of imagination that lives within every human soul. It is the power that has built cities, composed symphonies, and painted heavens upon chapel ceilings. Dreams are not mere escapes from the world — they are visions of what the world could be. The child who looks at the stars and whispers, “Someday,” is already shaping destiny. Yet Giotto warns us to take pleasure in those dreams — to love them, to cherish them — for the world will always try to steal them through cynicism and fear. To dream is to keep the sacred flame alive within the heart, even when the winds of hardship blow cold.

But principles are the bones of the spirit — the structure that allows the dream to stand. Without them, even the most radiant vision collapses into dust. To relish your principles is to take joy in doing what is right, even when it is difficult. It is to find pleasure not only in what we imagine, but in how we live. Giotto’s art endured because it was not built on whim, but on the firm ground of study, discipline, and faith. The same is true of any soul seeking greatness: dreams give direction, but principles give endurance. As the ancient Stoics taught, “The good life is not found in chance, but in character.”

And finally, Giotto speaks of love — that most human and divine of powers — when he says, “Drape your purest feelings on the heart of a precious lover.” Here he does not speak only of romantic affection, but of the act of giving the best of oneself to another — whether that be a lover, a friend, a child, or even one’s art. To “drape” one’s purest feelings means to offer them freely, without shame or fear, as a gift of the soul. The greatest acts of creation and compassion arise from this same impulse — to pour forth beauty and tenderness, not for reward, but for love itself. For love, when it is true, is both the muse and the masterpiece.

There is a story told of Leonardo da Vinci, who, long after Giotto’s time, would spend hours watching the way light touched the faces of ordinary people. He said that in each expression there was a kind of holiness — the reflection of God’s own tenderness. Leonardo, like Giotto, understood that to create — to live, even — is to love. It is to see the world not as a collection of things, but as a communion of souls. In this way, both artists lived Giotto’s teaching: they honored their dreams, held fast to their principles, and poured their feelings into their craft and their lives.

And so, take this wisdom into your heart: dream boldly, for dreams are the blueprints of eternity; live rightly, for principles are the pillars that uphold your spirit; and love purely, for love alone gives meaning to both dream and deed. When you unite these — when you take pleasure in your dreams, relish your principles, and drape your purest feelings upon those you cherish — your life becomes a work of art, painted not in pigment, but in purpose. For as Giotto di Bondone teaches, the masterpiece of existence is not found upon canvas or stone, but within the soul that dares to live with imagination, integrity, and love.