"The vast majority of English folk cannot and will not consider a picture as a picture, apart from any story which it may be supposed to tell."

"An artist's career always begins tomorrow."

"I can't tell you if genius is hereditary, because heaven has granted me no offspring."

"The rare few, who, early in life have rid themselves of the friendship of the many."

"If other people are going to talk, conversation becomes impossible."

"It takes a long time for a man to look like his portrait."

"To say to the painter that Nature is to be taken as she is, is to say to the player that he may sit on the piano."

"An artist is not paid for his labor but for his vision."

"Work alone will efface the footsteps of work."