In portraits, the grace and, we may add, the likeness consists more in taking the general air than in observing the exact similitude of every feature.

Could we teach taste or genius by rules, they would be no longer taste and genius.

There is no expedient to which a man will not resort to avoid the real labor of thinking.

Simplicity is an exact mediumbetween too little and too much.

The young mind is pliable and imitates, but in more advanced states grows rigid and must be warmed and softened before it will receive a deep impression.

Common observation and a plain understanding is the source of all art.

Those who, either from their own engagements and hurry of business, or from indolence, or from conceit and vanity, have neglected looking out of themselves, as far as my experience and observation reach, have from that time not only ceased to advance, and improve in their performances, but have gone backward. They may be compared to men who have lived upon their principal, till they are reduced to beggary, and left without resources.