Could We Teach Taste Or Genius By

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.

No Art Can Be Grafted With Success On Another Art. For Though They All Profess The Same Origin, And To Proceed From The Same Stock, Yet Each Has Its Own Peculiar Modes Both Of Imitating Nature And Of Deviating From It... The Deviation, More Especially, Will Not Bear Transplantation To Another Soil.

What Is A Well-chosen Collection Of Pictures, But Walls Hung Round With Thoughts?

Let Me Recommend To You Not To Have Too Great Dependence On Your Practice Or Memory, However Strong Those Impressions May Have Been Which Are There Deposited. They Are Forever Wearing Out, And Will Be At Least Obliterated, Unless They Are Continually Refreshed And Repaired.

It Is Vain For Painters... To Endeavour To Invent Without Materials On Which The Mind May Work.