The Primary Notion I Hold To Be

The Dwarf Sees Farther Than The Giant, When He Has The Giant's Shoulders To Mount On.

Creation Rather Than Painting, Or If Painting, Yet Such, And With Such Co-presence Of The Whole Picture Flash'd At Once Upon The Eye, As The Sun Paints In A Camera Obscura. (describing His Poetic Ideal, 1817)

Painting Is The Intermediate Somewhat Between A Thought And A Thing.

The Best Part Of Human Language, Properly So Called, Is Derived From Reflection On The Acts Of The Mind Itself.

A Nation To Be Great Ought To Be Compressed In Its Increment By Nations More Civilized Than Itself.