Quotessence
Home / Authors / Joshua Reynolds
Joshua Reynolds

Joshua Reynolds Quotes

Painter

Filter quotes by topic

AllArtMindMayPainterMenExcellenceColorProduceTasteWellsDegreesEffectsEyeIfsIndustryLaborLittlesObservationPaintingArt Is

Famous Joshua Reynolds Quotes

“Those who, either from their own engagements and hurry of business, or from indolence, or from conceit and vanity, have neglected looking out of themselves, as far as my experience and observation reach, have from that time not only ceased to advance, and improve in their performances, but have gone backward. They may be compared to men who have lived upon their principal, till they are reduced to beggary, and left without resources.”

MenMayLeftGoneResourcesPerformancesObservationVanityEngagementPrincipalNeglectedConceitIndolenceBeggary
Author:Joshua Reynolds
Create image

“But young men have not only this frivolous ambition of being thought masters of execution, inciting them on the one hand, but also their natural sloth tempting them on the other. They are terrified at the prospect before them, of the toil required to attain exactness. The impetuosity of youth is disgusted at the slow approaches of a regular siege, and desires, from mere impatience of labour, to take the citadel by storm. They wish to find some shorter path to excellence, and hope to obtain the reward of eminence by other means, than those which the indispensable rules of art have prescribed.”

MenMeanArtHandsYoungDesireWishNaturalPathYouthMastersAmbitionApproachExcellenceMereRewardsStormYoung ManLabourExecutionTerrifiedIndispensableToilImpatienceSlothTemptingFrivolousDisgustedSiegeEminenceExactnessCitadels
Book:The Works of Sir Joshua Reynolds: Containing His Discourses, Idlers, A Journey to Flanders and Holland, and His Commentary on Du Fresnoy's Art of Painting; to which is Prefixed an Account of the Life and Writings of the Author by Edward Malone
Create image

“Gardening as far as Gardening is Art, or entitled to that appellation, is a deviation from nature; for if the true taste consists, as many hold, in banishing every appearance of Art, or any traces of the footsteps of man, it would then be no longer a Garden.”

IfsMenArtNatureDesignTasteGardenAppearanceGardeningEntitledFootstepsDeviation
Book:The Works of Sir Joshua Reynolds: Containing His Discourses, Idlers, A Journey to Flanders and Holland, and His Commentary on Du Fresnoy's Art of Painting; to which is Prefixed an Account of the Life and Writings of the Author by Edward Malone
Create image

“Excellence is never granted to man, but as the reward of labour.”

MenExcellenceRewardsGrantedLabour
Book:The Works of Sir Joshua Reynolds: Containing His Discourses, Idlers, A Journey to Flanders and Holland, and His Commentary on Du Fresnoy's Art of Painting; to which is Prefixed an Account of the Life and Writings of the Author by Edward Malone
Create image

“Excellence is never granted to man but as the reward of labor. It argues no small strength of mind to persevere in habits of industry without the pleasure of perceiving those advances, which, like the hand of a clock, whilst they make hourly approaches to their point, yet proceed so slowly as to escape observation.”

MenMindHandsPleasureIndustryHabitApproachLaborExcellenceRewardsArguingObservationGrantedClockPersevereStrength Of Mind
Book:Seven Discourses on Art
Create image