Fame has no necessary conjunction with praise; it may exist without the breath of a word: it is a recognition of excellence which must be felt, but need not be spoken. Even the envious must feel it: feel it, and hate in silence.

He who has no pleasure in looking up, is not fit so much as to look down.

The most intangible, and therefore the worst, kind of a lie is a half truth. This is the peculiar device of a conscientious detractor.

The love of gain never made a painter; but it has marred many.

The painter who is content with the praise of the world for what does not satisfy himself, is not an artist, but an artisan; for though his reward be only praise, his pay is that of a mechanic.

Nothing gets you behind faster than trying to keep up with people who are already there.

Desert being the essential condition of praise, there can be no reality in the one without the other.