All the gestures of children are graceful; the reign of distortion and unnatural attitudes commences with the introduction of the dancing master.

Invention strictly speaking, is little more than a new combination of those images which have been previously gathered and deposited in the memory; nothing can come from nothing.

Few have been taught to any purpose who have not been their own teachers.

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

Reform is a work of time; a national taste, however wrong it may be, cannot be totally changed at once.

The first degree of proficiency is, in painting, what grammar is in literature, a general preparation for whatever the student may afterward choose for more particular application. The power of drawing, modeling, and using colors, is very properly called the language of the art.

And he who does not know himself does not know others, so it may be said with equal truth, that he who does not know others knows himself but very imperfectly.