A Painter Must Compensate The Natural Deficiencies

There Is No Expedient To Which A Man Will Not Resort To Avoid The Real Labor Of Thinking.

By Leaving A Student To Himself He May... Be Led To Undertake Matters Above His Strength, But The Trial Will At Least Have This Advantage: It Will Discover To Himself His Own Deficiencies And This Discovery Alone Is A Very Considerable Acquisition.

It Is But A Poor Eloquence Which Only Shows That The Orator Can Talk.

In The Practice Of Art... It Is Necessary To Keep A Watchful And Jealous Eye Over Ourselves; Idleness, Assuming The Specious Disguise Of Industry... May Be Employed To Evade And Shuffle Off Real Labor - The Real Labor Of Thinking.

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.