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.

Taste depends upon those finer emotions which make the organization of the soul.

The mind is but a barren soil; a soil which is soon exhausted, and will produce no crop, or only one, unless it be continually fertilized and enriched with foreign matter.

Simplicity is an exact mediumbetween too little and too much.

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

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

If you have great talents, industry will improve them: if you have but moderate abilities, industry will supply their deficiency.