"The only competition worthy of a wise man is with himself."
"I am inclined to think from my own experience that the difficulty to eminence lies not in the road, but in the timidity of the traveler."
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Source: Washington Allston (1993). “The Correspondence of Washington Allston”, p.15, University Press of Kentucky
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"Distinction is the consequence, never the object of a great mind."
"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."
"Titian, Tintoretto, and Paul Veronese absolutely enchanted me, for they took away all sense of subject... It was the poetry of color which I felt, procreative in its nature, giving birth to a thousand things which the eye cannot see, and distinct from their cause."
"If I prove extravagant, I shall be more so from ignorance than willfulness. I am not wholly insensible to the pleasures of the world, therefore shall not be governed entirely by necessity; but I flatter myself, at least, in being able to restrain their gratification within due bonds."
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