He Who Resolves Never To Ransack Any

Every Art, Like Our Own, Has In Its Composition Fluctuating As Well As Fixed Principles. It Is An Attentive Inquiry Into Their Difference That Will Enable Us To Determine How Far We Are Influenced By Custom And Habit, And What Is Fixed In The Nature Of Things.

Whatever Trips You Make, You Must Still Have Nature In Your Eye.

However Minutely Labored The Picture May Be In The Detail, The Whole Will Have A False And Even An Unfinished Appearance, At Whatever Distance, Or In Whatever Light It Can Be Shown.

One Inconvenience... May Attend Bold And Arduous Attempts: Frequent Failure May Discourage. This Evil, However, Is Not More Pernicious Than The Slow Proficiency Which Is The Natural Consequence Of Too Easy Tasks.

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.