Joshua Reynolds quotes

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A mere copier of nature can never produce anything great.
Joshua Reynolds
Nature
A room hung with pictures is a room hung with thoughts.
Joshua Reynolds
Thoughts
All the gestures of children are graceful; the reign of distortion and unnatural attitudes commences with the introduction of the dancing master.
Joshua Reynolds
Children
Dancing
Could we teach taste or genius by rules, they would be no longer taste and genius.
Joshua Reynolds
Genius
Rules
Taste
Few have been taught to any purpose who have not been their own teachers.
Joshua Reynolds
Purpose
Teachers
If you have great talents, industry will improve them: if you have but moderate abilities, industry will supply their deficiency.
Joshua Reynolds
Will
It is but a poor eloquence which only shows that the orator can talk.
Joshua Reynolds
Eloquence
Poor
Talk
The greatest man is he who forms the taste of a nation; the next greatest is he who corrupts it.
Joshua Reynolds
Man
Nation
Taste
The real character of a man is found out by his amusements.
Joshua Reynolds
Character
Man
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.
Joshua Reynolds
Invention
Memory
Nothing
Words should be employed as the means, not the end; language is the instrument, conviction is the work.
Joshua Reynolds
Work
Conviction
End
Language
Words
The value and rank of every art is in proportion to the mental labor employed in it, or the mental pleasure in producing it.
Joshua Reynolds
Art
Labor
Pleasure
Rank
Value