Joshua Reynolds Quotes
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A mere copier of nature can never produce anything great.
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The art of seeing Nature, or in other words, the art of using Models, is in reality the great object, the point to which all our studies are directed.
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The mind is but a barren soil; a soil which is soon exhausted, and will produce no crop, or only one, unless it be continually fertilized and enriched with foreign matter
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A painter must compensate the natural deficiencies of his art. He has but one sentence to utter, but one moment to exhibit. He cannot, like the poet or historian, expatiate.
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The real character of a man is found out by his amusements.
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Genius is supposed to be a power of producing excellencies, which are out of the reach of the rules of art.
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A room hung with pictures is a room hung with thoughts.
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The value and rank of every art is in proportion to the mental labor employed in it, or the mental pleasure in producing it.
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It must be remembered that painting is not the mere gratification of sight.
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Words should be employed as the means, not as the end: language is the instrument, conviction is the work.
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Nature is, and must be the fountain which alone is inexhaustible; and from which all excellencies must originally flow.
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Could we teach taste or genius by rules, they would be no longer taste and genius.