An Eye Critically Nice Can

Reform Is A Work Of Time; A National Taste, However Wrong It May Be, Cannot Be Totally Changed At Once.

Genius Is Supposed To Be A Power Of Producing Excellences Which Are Put Of The Reach Of The Rules Of Art: A Power Which No Precepts Can Teach, And Which No Industry Can Acquire.

One Inconvenience... May Attend Bold And Arduous Attempts: Frequent Failure May Discourage. This Evil, However, Is Not More Pernicious Than The Slow Proficiency Which Is The Natural Consequence Of Too Easy Tasks.

Our Exhibitions [the Royal Academy] Have... A Mischievous Tendency, By Seducing The Painter To An Ambition Of Pleasing Indiscriminately The Mixed Multitude Of People Who Resort To Them.

I Wish You To Be Persuaded That Success In Your Art Depends Almost Entirely On Your Own Industry; But The Industry Which I Principally Recommend Is Not The Industry Of The Hands, But Of The Mind.