It Is Impossible That Anything Will Be

I Wish You To Be Persuaded That Success In Your Art Depends Almost Entirely On Your Own Industry; But The Industry Which I Principally Recommend Is Not The Industry Of The Hands, But Of The Mind.

Our Exhibitions [the Royal Academy] Have... A Mischievous Tendency, By Seducing The Painter To An Ambition Of Pleasing Indiscriminately The Mixed Multitude Of People Who Resort To Them.

It Is Impossible That Anything Will Be Well Understood Or Well Done That Is Taken Into A Reluctant Understanding, And Executed With A Servile Hand.

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

Simplicity Is An Exact Mediumbetween Too Little And Too Much.