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

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

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.

You are a prisoner of your thoughts. Expand your thoughts and get out of the prison.

Irony alone is damning.The flesh will be bland and you will believe you are forever reading the same book.

Fear doesn't exist anywhere except in the mind.

You just got to be really logical when you're a comedian - to a fault. Like a lawyer's got to believe in the law.

No government ought to exist for the purpose of checking the prosperity of its people or to allow such a principle in its policy.

One of my hardest parts of my job is to console the family members who have lost their life.

Any team can have a bad century.

If you are ever attacked in the street do not shout 'help!', shout 'Fire!'. People adore fires and always come rushing. Nobody will come if you shout 'help.

In the United States three new methods of transportation made their appearance at almost the same time - the steamboat, the canal boat, and the rail car

My job is to get people back to work and make tough decisions. I've been willing to do it.