"There is no expedient to which a man will not resort to avoid the real labor of thinking."
"I do not see in what manner practice alone can be sufficient for the production of correct, excellent, and finished pictures. Works deserving this character never were produced, nor ever will arise, from memory alone."
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Source: Sir Joshua Reynolds (1824). “The Complete Works of Sir Joshua Reynolds: First President of the Royal Academy : with an Original Memoir, and Anecdotes of the Author”, p.79
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"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."