Joshua Reynolds Quotes

You are never to lose sight of nature; the instant you do, you are all abroad, at the mercy of every gust of fashion, without knowing or seeing the point to which you ought to steer.

There can be no doubt but that he who has the most materials has the greatest means of invention.

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

What has pleased and continues to please, is likely to please again; hence are derived the rules of art, and on this immovable foundation they must ever stand.

Art in its perfection is not ostentatious; it lies hid and works its effect, itself unseen.

The great end of all arts is to make an impression on the imagination and the feeling. The imitation of nature frequently does this. Sometimes it fails and something else succeeds.

In portraits, the grace and, we may add, the likeness consists more in taking the general air than in observing the exact similitude of every feature.

A mere copier of nature can never produce anything great.

There is no expedient to which a man will not go to avoid the labor of thinking.

Whatever trips you make, you must still have nature in your eye.

All the gestures of children are graceful; the reign of distortion and unnatural attitudes commences with the introduction of the dancing master.

It is but a poor eloquence which only shows that the orator can talk.

A room hung with pictures is a room hung with thoughts.

The value and rank of every art is in proportion to the mental labor employed in it, or the mental pleasure in producing it.

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

The greatest man is he who forms the taste of a nation; the next greatest is he who corrupts it.

Few have been taught to any purpose who have not been their own teachers.

Could we teach taste or genius by rules, they would be no longer taste and genius.

I can recommend nothing better… than that you endeavor to infuse into your works what you learn from the contemplation of the works of others.

If you have great talents, industry will improve them; if you have but moderate abilities, industry will supply their deficiency.

The real character of a man is found out by his amusements.

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 from nothing.