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

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

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.

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

The excellence of every art, must consist in the complete accomplishment of its purpose

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.

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.