No good work whatever can be perfect, and the demand for perfection is always a sign of a misunderstanding of the ends of art.

Repose demands for its expression the implied capability of its opposite,--energy.

That admiration of the 'neat but not gaudy,' which is commonly reported to have influenced the devil when he painted his tail pea green.

The whole difference between a man of genius and other men, it has been said a thousand times, and most truly, is that the first remains in great part a child, seeing with the large eyes of children, in perpetual wonder, not conscious of much knowledge--conscious, rather of infinite ignorance, and yet infinite power; a fountain of eternal admiration, delight, and creative force within him meeting the ocean of visible and governable things around him.

When God shuts a door, He opens a window.

God gives us always strength enough, and sense enough, for what He wants us to do; if we either tire ourselves or puzzle ourselves, it is our own fault.

The art of nations is to be accumulative, just as science and history are; the work of living men not superseding, but building itself upon the work of the past.