The mind is but a barren soil; a soil which is soon exhausted, and will produce no crop, or only one, unless… — Joshua Reynolds Copy Share Image
The true test of all the arts is not solely whether the production is a true copy of nature, but whether it… — Joshua Reynolds Copy Share Image
It is vain for painters... to endeavour to invent without materials on which the mind may work. — Joshua Reynolds Copy Share Image
An artist who brings to his work a mind tolerably furnished with the general principles of art, and a taste formed upon… — Joshua Reynolds Copy Share Image
He who resolves never to ransack any mind but his own, will be soon reduced, from mere barrenness, to the poorest of… — Joshua Reynolds Copy Share Image
If deceiving the eye were the only business of the art... the minute painter would be more apt to succeed. But it… — Joshua Reynolds Copy Share Image
I wish you to be persuaded that success in your art depends almost entirely on your own industry; but the industry which… — Joshua Reynolds Copy Share Image
Poetry operates by raising our curiosity, engaging the mind by degrees to take an interest in the event, keeping that event suspended,… — Joshua Reynolds Copy Share Image
Poetry operates by raising our curiosity, engaging the mind by degrees to take an interest in the event, keeping that event suspended,… — Joshua Reynolds Copy Share Image
A painter must compensate the natural deficiencies of his art. He has but one sentence to utter, but one moment to exhibit.… — Joshua Reynolds Copy Share Image
Perhaps blue, red, and yellow strike the mind more forcibly from there not being any great union between them, as martial music,… — Joshua Reynolds Copy Share Image
The young mind is pliable and imitates, but in more advanced states grows rigid and must be warmed and softened before it… — Joshua Reynolds Copy Share Image
Excellence is never granted to man but as the reward of labor. It argues no small strength of mind to persevere in… — Joshua Reynolds Copy Share Image
I am convinced that this is the only means of advancing science, of clearing the mind from a confused heap of contradictory… — Joshua Reynolds Copy Share Image
Words should be employed as the means, not the end; language is the instrument, conviction is the work. — Joshua Reynolds Copy Share Image
Grandeur of effect is produced by two different ways which seem entirely opposed to each other. One is by reducing the colors to little… — Joshua Reynolds Copy Share Image
And he who does not know himself does not know others, so it may be said with equal truth, that he who does not… — Joshua Reynolds Copy Share Image
If you have great talents, industry will improve them: if you have but moderate abilities, industry will supply their deficiency. — Joshua Reynolds Copy Share Image
The general ideas which are expressed in sketches, correspond very well to the art often used in poetry... every reader making out the detail… — Joshua Reynolds Copy Share Image
All the gestures of children are graceful; the reign of distortion and unnatural attitudes commences with the introduction of the dancing master. — Joshua Reynolds Copy Share Image
Our studies will be forever, in a very great degree, under the direction of chance; like travelers, we must take what we can get,… — Joshua Reynolds Copy Share Image
Style in painting is the same as in writing; a power over materials, whether words or colors, by which conceptions or sentiments are conveyed. — Joshua Reynolds Copy Share Image
The distinct blue, red, and yellow colors... though they have not the kind of harmony which is produced by a variety of broken and… — Joshua Reynolds Copy Share Image
