Joshua Reynolds

"It must be remembered that painting is not the mere gratification of sight."

"A painter must compensate the natural deficiencies of his art. He has but one sentence to utter, but one moment to exhibit. He cannot, like the poet or historian, expatiate."

"Words should be employed as the means, not as the end: language is the instrument, conviction is the work."

"Genius is supposed to be a power of producing excellencies, which are out of the reach of the rules of art; a power which no precepts can teach, and which no industry can acquire."

"Nature is, and must be the fountain which alone is inexhaustible; and from which all excellencies must originally flow."

"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."