Quotes by Joshua Reynolds

• The value and rank of every art is in proportion to the mental labor employed in it, or the mental pleasure in producing it.
• Words should be employed as the means, not the end; language is the instrument, conviction is the work.
• 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 of nothing.
• The real character of a man is found out by his amusements.
• The greatest man is he who forms the taste of a nation; the next greatest is he who corrupts it.
• It is but a poor eloquence which only shows that the orator can talk.
• If you have great talents, industry will improve them: if you have but moderate abilities, industry will supply their deficiency.
• 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.
• All the gestures of children are graceful; the reign of distortion and unnatural attitudes commences with the introduction of the dancing master.
• A room hung with pictures is a room hung with thoughts.
• A mere copier of nature can never produce anything great.
• Life is a journey meant to be filled with daring adventures and endless possibilities.