An artist who brings to his work a mind tolerably furnished with the general principles of art, and a taste formed upon the works of good artists – i…

- Joshua Reynolds

The mind is but a barren soil; a soil which is soon exhausted, and will produce no crop, or only one, unless it be continually fertilized and enriche…

- Joshua Reynolds

Simplicity is an exact mediumbetween too little and too much.

- Joshua Reynolds

If you have great talents, industry will improve them: if you have but moderate abilities, industry will supply their deficiency.

- Joshua Reynolds

Could we teach taste or genius by rules, they would be no longer taste and genius.

- Joshua Reynolds

Invention strictly speaking, is little more than a new combination of those images which have been previously gathered and deposited in the memory; n…

- Joshua Reynolds

A mere copier of nature can never produce anything great.

- Joshua Reynolds

Excellence is never granted to man, but as the reward of labour.

- Joshua Reynolds

The great end of all arts is to make an impression on the imagination and the feeling. The imitation of nature frequently does this. Sometimes it fai…

- Joshua Reynolds