Few Have Been Taught To Any Purpose

The Greatest Man Is He Who Forms The Taste Of A Nation; The Next Greatest Is He Who Corrupts It.

Excellence Is Never Granted To Man, But As The Reward Of Labour.

A Mere Copier Of Nature Can Never Produce Anything Great.

Those Who, Either From Their Own Engagements And Hurry Of Business, Or From Indolence, Or From Conceit And Vanity, Have Neglected Looking Out Of Themselves, As Far As My Experience And Observation Reach, Have From That Time Not Only Ceased To Advance, And Improve In Their Performances, But Have Gone Backward. They May Be Compared To Men Who Have Lived Upon Their Principal, Till They Are Reduced To Beggary, And Left Without Resources.

Grandeur Of Effect Is Produced By Two Different Ways Which Seem Entirely Opposed To Each Other. One Is By Reducing The Colors To Little More Than Chiaroscuro... And The Other, By Making The Colors Very Distinct And Forcible... But Still, The Presiding Principle Of Both Those Manners Is Simplicity.