One way of looking at speech is to say that it is a constant stratagem to cover nakedness.
I have no ideas about what the paintings imply about the world. I think it's better if I don't know.
The greatest obstacle to being heroic is the doubt whether one may not be going to prove one's self a fool; the truest heroism is to resist the doubt; and the profoundest wisdom, to know when it ought to be resisted, and when it be obeyed.