Frederic Leighton to James McNeill Whistler: 'My dear Whistler, you leave your pictures in such a sketchy, unfinished state. Why don't you ever finis….

A student of James McNeill Whistler tells the great artist, 'I tend to paint what I see.' Whistler replies, 'Ah! The shock will come when you see wha….

Art is limited to the infinite, and beginning there cannot progress..

The rare few, who, early in life have rid themselves of the friendship of the many..

Hang on the walls of your mind the memory of your successes. Take counsel of your strength, not your weakness. Think of the good jobs you have done. ….

The world is divided into two classes - invalids and nurses..

Can't a person be born where they want to be born?.

I always ask at once, 'Do you drink?' and if she says 'No,' I bow politely and say I am sorry but I fear she will not suit. All good cooks drink..

I remember that at one time I always made a drawing before going to bed!! - Of myself I mean - though I finally destroyed most of them..

I am not arguing with you - I am telling you..

For art and joy go together, with bold openness, and high head, and ready hand - fearing naught and dreading no exposure..

A picture is finished when all trace of the means used to bring about the end has disappeared..

If other people are going to talk, conversation becomes impossible..

Work alone will efface the footsteps of work..

The explanation is quite simple. I wished to be near my mother..

Nature is usually wrong..

Over and over again did the Attorney-General cry out aloud, in the agony of his cause, 'What is to become of painting if the critics withhold their l….

You shouldn't say it is not good. You should say, you do not like it; and then, you know, you're perfectly safe..

The masterpiece should appear as the flower to the painter - perfect in its bud as in its bloom - with no reason to explain its presence - no mission….

If the man who paints only the tree, or flower, or other surface he sees before him were an artist, the king of artists would be the photographer. It….

The work of a master reeks not of the sweat of the brow - suggests no effort - and is finished from its beginning..