It's always hopeless to talk about painting - one never does anything but talk around it.

Things alter for the worse spontaneously, if they be not altered for the better designedly.

The French are wiser than they seem, and the Spaniards seem wiser than they are.

Brutes by their natural instinct have produced many discoveries, whereas men by discussion and the conclusions of reason have given birth to few or none.

In civil business; what first? boldness; what second and third? boldness: and yet boldness is a child of ignorance and baseness.

Truth is a good dog; but always beware of barking too close to the heels of an error, lest you get your brains kicked out.

A man finds himself seven years older the day after his marriage.