It is a great error to take oneself for more than one is, or for less than one is worth.

Nothing is more damaging to the truth than an old error.

Energy will do anything that can be done in the world; and no talents, no circumstances, no opportunities will make a two-legged animal a man without it.

Most pioneers are at the mercy of doubt at the beginning, whether of their worth, of their theories, or of the whole enigmatic field in which they labour.

Art is a severe business; most serious when employed in grand and sacred objects. The artist stands higher than art, higher than the object. He uses art for his purposes, and deals with the object after his own fashion.

Painting predicates what man wants to see, and what man ought to see, not what he ordinarily sees.

The older we grow, the greater become the ordeals.