The Excellence Of Every Art, Must Consist

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.

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.

Our Studies Will Be Forever, In A Very Great Degree, Under The Direction Of Chance; Like Travelers, We Must Take What We Can Get, And When We Can Get It - Whether It Is Or Is Not Administered To Us In The Most Commodious Manner, In The Most Proper Place, Or At The Exact Minute When We Would Wish To Have It.

What Is A Well-chosen Collection Of Pictures, But Walls Hung Round With Thoughts?

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