 All the gestures of children are graceful; the reign of distortion and unnatural attitudes commences with the introduction of the dancing master. |
| The value and rank of every art is in proportion to the mental labor employed in it, or the mental pleasure in producing it. |
| A mere copier of nature can never produce anything great. |
| Invention, strictly speaking, is little more than a new combination of those images which have been previously gathered and deposited in the memory; nothing can come of nothing. |
| Could we teach taste or genius by rules, they would be no longer taste and genius. |
| The greatest man is he who forms the taste of a nation; the next greatest is he who corrupts it. |
| A room hung with pictures is a room hung with thoughts. |
| If you have great talents, industry will improve them: if you have but moderate abilities, industry will supply their deficiency. |
| Words should be employed as the means, not the end; language is the instrument, conviction is the work. |
| It is but a poor eloquence which only shows that the orator can talk. |
| 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. |
