The Great Use Of Copying,

The True Test Of All The Arts Is Not Solely Whether The Production Is A True Copy Of Nature, But Whether It Answers The End Of Art, Which Is To Produce A Pleasing Effect Upon The Mind.

From A Slight, Undetermined Drawing, Where The Ideas Of The Composition And Character Are Just Touched Upon, The Imagination Supplies More Than The Painter Himself, Probably, Could Produce. And We Accordingly Often Find That The Finished Work Disappoints The Expectation That Was Raised From The Sketch.

Few Have Been Taught To Any Purpose Who Have Not Been Their Own Teachers.

The First Degree Of Proficiency Is, In Painting, What Grammar Is In Literature, A General Preparation For Whatever The Student May Afterward Choose For More Particular Application. The Power Of Drawing, Modeling, And Using Colors, Is Very Properly Called The Language Of The Art.

Our Studies Will Be Forever, In A Very Great Degree, Under The Direction Of Chance; Like Travelers, We Must Take What We Can Get, And When We Can Get It - Whether It Is Or Is Not Administered To Us In The Most Commodious Manner, In The Most Proper Place, Or At The Exact Minute When We Would Wish To Have It.