"There is no expedient to which a man will not resort to avoid the real labor of thinking."
"By leaving a student to himself he may... be led to undertake matters above his strength, but the trial will at least have this advantage: it will discover to himself his own deficiencies and this discovery alone is a very considerable acquisition."
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Source: Sir Joshua Reynolds, Edward Malone (1867). “The Works of Sir Joshua Reynolds: Containing His Discourses, Idlers, A Journey to Flanders and Holland, and His Commentary on Du Fresnoy's Art of Painting; to which is Prefixed an Account of the Life and Writings of the Author by Edward Malone”, p.114
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More quotes by Joshua Reynolds
"The real character of a man is found out by his amusements."
"Few have been taught to any purpose who have not been their own teachers."
"A room hung with pictures is a room hung with thoughts."
"Our Exhibitions [The Royal Academy] have... a mischievous tendency, by seducing the Painter to an ambition of pleasing indiscriminately the mixed multitude of people who resort to them."
"Art in its perfection is not ostentatious; it lies hid and works its effect, itself unseen."