The real character of a man is found out by his amusements.

There is no expedient to which a man will not resort to avoid the real labor of thinking.

Few have been taught to any purpose who have not been their own teachers.

A room hung with pictures is a room hung with thoughts.

Our Exhibitions [The Royal Academy] have... a mischievous tendency, by seducing the Painter to an ambition of pleasing indiscriminately the mixed multitude of people who resort to them.

Art in its perfection is not ostentatious; it lies hid and works its effect, itself unseen.

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 fails and something else succeeds.

A mere copier of nature can never produce anything great.

Taste depends upon those finer emotions which make the organization of the soul.

Genius is supposed to be a power of producing excellences which are put of the reach of the rules of art: a power which no precepts can teach, and which no industry can acquire.

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 from nothing.

I hope that some day the practice of producing cowpox in human beings will spread over the world - when that day comes, there will be no more smallpox.

I will release my tax returns - against my lawyer's wishes - when she releases her 33,000 e-mails that have been deleted. As soon as she releases them, I will release.

Doing something a long time does not mean you're good. It only means you've done it a long time.

I worked out of Hollywood for 10 years and I had my heart broken half a dozen times, so I know all the things that can go wrong.

When you’ve worked hard and done well and walked through that doorway of opportunity, you do not slam it shut behind you.

Approach your lives as if they were novels, with their own heroes, villains, red herrings, and triumphs.

Conversation about the weather is the last refuge of the unimaginative.

Educate and inform the whole mass of the people. Enable them to see that it is their interest to preserve peace and order, and they will preserve them.

Nobody's life is perfect and in the grand scheme of things, life is short. I think it's so important to live life to its fullest and choose to smile.

Chess is so inspiring that I do not believe a good player is capable of haviong an evil thought during the game.