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

A room hung with pictures is a room hung with thoughts.

Style in painting is the same as in writing; a power over materials, whether words or colors, by which conceptions or sentiments are conveyed.

Genius is supposed to be a power of producing excellences which are put of the reach of the rules of art: a power which no precepts can teach, and which no industry can acquire.

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.

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.

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.