“The greatest art is to shape the quality of the day. ”

“To affect the quality of the day - that is the highest of the arts.”

“We must learn to reawaken and keep ourselves awake, not by mechanical aids, but by an infinite expectation of the dawn, which does not forsake us even in our soundest sleep. I know of no more encouraging fact than the unquestionable ability of man to elevate his life by a conscious endeavour. It is something to be able to paint a particular picture, or to carve a statue, and so to make a few objects beautiful; but it is far more glorious to carve and paint the very atmosphere and medium through which we look, which morally we can do. To affect the quality of the day, that is the highest of arts.”

“The greatest gains and values are farthest from being appreciated.”

“...for my greatest skill has been to want but little.”

“It has come to this, that the lover of art is one, and the lover of nature another, though true art is but the expression of our love of nature.”

“The greatest compliment that was ever paid me was when one asked me what I thought, and attended to my answer.”