A Mere Copier Of Nature Can Never

A Room Hung With Pictures Is A Room Hung With Thoughts.

I Have Heard Painters Acknowledge, Though In That Acknowledgment No Degradation Of Themselves Was Intended, That They Could Do Better Without Nature Than With Her; Or As They Express Themselves, 'that It Only Put Them Out.

Style In Painting Is The Same As In Writing; A Power Over Materials, Whether Words Or Colors, By Which Conceptions Or Sentiments Are Conveyed.

Few Have Been Taught To Any Purpose Who Have Not Been Their Own Teachers.

But Young Men Have Not Only This Frivolous Ambition Of Being Thought Masters Of Execution, Inciting Them On The One Hand, But Also Their Natural Sloth Tempting Them On The Other. They Are Terrified At The Prospect Before Them, Of The Toil Required To Attain Exactness. The Impetuosity Of Youth Is Disgusted At The Slow Approaches Of A Regular Siege, And Desires, From Mere Impatience Of Labour, To Take The Citadel By Storm. They Wish To Find Some Shorter Path To Excellence, And Hope To Obtain The Reward Of Eminence By Other Means, Than Those Which The Indispensable Rules Of Art Have Prescribed.