If other people are going to talk, conversation becomes impossible.

The rare few, who, early in life have rid themselves of the friendship of the many.

If the man who paints only the tree, or flower, or other surface he sees before him were an artist, the king of artists would be the photographer. It is for the artist to do something beyond this.

Frederic Leighton to James McNeill Whistler: 'My dear Whistler, you leave your pictures in such a sketchy, unfinished state. Why don't you ever finish them?' James McNeill Whistler to Frederic Leighton: 'My dear Leighton, why do you ever begin yours?

An artist is not paid for his labor but for his vision.

Paint should not be applied thick. It should be like a breath on the surface of a pane of glass.

The work of a master reeks not of the sweat of the brow - suggests no effort - and is finished from its beginning.