A Mere Copier Of Nature Can Never

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.

He Who Resolves Never To Ransack Any Mind But His Own, Will Be Soon Reduced, From Mere Barrenness, To The Poorest Of All Imitations; He Will Be Obliged To Imitate Himself, And To Repeat What He Has Before Often Repeated.

It Is Impossible That Anything Will Be Well Understood Or Well Done That Is Taken Into A Reluctant Understanding, And Executed With A Servile Hand.

The Spectator, As He Walks The Gallery, Will Stop, Or Pass Along. To Give A General Air Of Grandeur At First View, All Trifling, Or Artful Play Of Little Lights, Or An Attention To A Variety Of Tints Is To Be Avoided; A Quietness And Simplicity Must Reign Over The Whole Work, To Which A Breadth Of Uniform And Simple Color Will Very Much Contribute.

Words Should Be Employed As The Means, Not The End; Language Is The Instrument, Conviction Is The Work.