“When reading we perceive lettering as the flight of a bird or the gallop of a horse. We are aware of these as a pleasing graceful phenomenon and do not see the limbs of these animals and their instantaneous positions in time. In lettering it is the complete line which is the most important thing.”

—Peter Behrens, 1902; quoted in The Art of Lettering; The History, Anatomy, and Aesthetics of the Roman Letter Forms, by Albert Kapr, 1983.