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ALLSTON, Washington quotes
(1779-1843), American painter
Never judge a work of art by its defects.
Distinction is the consequence, never the object, of a great mind.
The most intangible, and therefore the worst kind of a lie, is a half-truth.—This is the peculiar device of the "conscientious" detractor.
Nothing is rarer than a solitary lie; for lies breed like toads; you cannot tell one but out it comes with a hundred young ones on its back.
It is a hard matter for a man to lie all over, nature having provided king's evidence in almost every member. The hand will sometimes act as a vane, to show which way the wind blows, even when every feature is set the other way; the knees smite together and sound the alarm of fear under a fierce countenance; the legs shake with anger, when all above is calm.
The love of gain never made a painter, but it has marred many.
The painter who is content with the praise of the world for what does not satisfy himself, is not an artist, but an artisan; for though his reward be only praise, his pay is that of a mechanic.
Desert being the essential condition of praise, there can be no reality in the one without the other.
Reputation is but the synonym of popularity; dependent on suffrage, to be increased or diminished at the will of the voters.
Reverence is an ennobling sentiment; it is felt to be degrading only by the vulgar mind, which would escape the sense of its own littleness by elevating itself into an antagonist of what is above it. He that has no pleasure in looking up is not fit so much as to look down.
In the same degree that we overrate ourselves, we shall underrate others; for injustice allowed at home is not likely to be corrected abroad.
Never expect justice from a vain man; if he has the negative magnanimity not to disparage you, it is the most you can expect.
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