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

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.

Never judge a work of art by its defects.

Never expect justice from a vain man; if he has the negative magnanimity not to disparage you, it is the most you can expect.

Distinction is the consequence, never the object of a great mind.

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

Selfishness in art, as in other things, is sensibility kept at home.