Ancient portraits are symbolic images without any immediate relation to the individuals represented; they are not portraits as we understand them.... It is remarkable that philologists who are capable of carrying accuracy to the extremes in the case of words are as credulous as babies when it comes to "images," and yet an image is so full of information that ten thousands words would not add up to it.

Preface - A History of Science Vol.2 Hellenistic Science and Culture in the Last Three Centuries B.C. (1959)