Style In Painting Is The

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.

A Mere Copier Of Nature Can Never Produce Anything Great.

I Do Not See In What Manner Practice Alone Can Be Sufficient For The Production Of Correct, Excellent, And Finished Pictures. Works Deserving This Character Never Were Produced, Nor Ever Will Arise, From Memory Alone.

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

I Am Convinced That This Is The Only Means Of Advancing Science, Of Clearing The Mind From A Confused Heap Of Contradictory Observations, That Do But Perplex And Puzzle The Student, When He Compares Them, Or Misguide Him If He Gives Himself Up To Their Authority; But Bringing Them Under One General Head, Can Alone Give Rest And Satisfaction To An Inquisitive Mind.