Sir Joshua Reynolds

“Common observation and a plain understanding is the source of all art.”

“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.”

“There is no expedient to which a man will not resort to avoid the real labor of thinking.”

“Simplicity is an exact medium between too little and too much”