Quotes from WASHINGTON ALLSTON

I am inclined to think from my own experience that the difficulty to eminence lies not in the road, but in the timidity of the traveler.

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. Of such minds are mannerists in Art; in the world, tyrants of all sorts.

In the same degree that we overrate ourselves, we shall underrate others.

Never expect justice from a vain man; if he has the negative magnanimity not to disparage you, it is the most you can expect.

No man knows himself as an original.

Make no man your idol, for the best man must have faults; and his faults will insensibly become yours, in addition to your own.

Selfishness in art, as in other things, is sensibility kept at home.

Injustice allowed at home is not likely to be corrected abroad.

He who has no pleasure in looking up, is not fit so much as to look down.

The only competition worthy of a wise man is with himself.

The most intangible, and therefore the worst, kind of a lie is a half truth. This is the peculiar device of a conscientious detractor.

Distinction is the consequence, never the object of a great mind.

Never judge a work of art by its defects.

The Painter who seeks popularity in Art closes the door upon his own genius.

If an Artist love his Art for its own sake, he will delight in excellence wherever he meets it, as well in the work of another as in his own.

I am inclined to think from my own experience that the difficulty to eminence lies not in the road, but in the timidity of the traveler.