Poor France, thy fine climate, rich vineyards, and the wishes of the learned avail nothing; thou art a destitute beggar, and not the powerful friend thou wert represented to me.

To repay evils with kindness is the religion I was taught to practise, and this will forever be my rule.

I looked long and carefully at the picture of a stag painted by Landseer - the style was good, and the brush was handled with fine effect, but he fails in copying Nature, without which the best work will be a failure.

The best recommendation I can have is my own talents, and the fruits of my own labors, and what others will not do for me, I will try and do for myself.

Never give up listening to the sounds of birds.

To have been torn from the study would have been as death; my time was entirely occupied with art.

The worse my drawings were, the more beautiful did the originals appear.