The value and rank of every art is in proportion to the mental labor employed in it, or the mental pleasure in producing it.

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.

There is no right or wrong.There is no weak or strong.There is only you.

People are always afraid of other things, they are never afraid of themselves.

The opposite of a fact is falsehood, but the opposite of one profound truth may very well be another profound truth.

Onstage or in films, you do affect peoples' lives, and sometimes that's very gratifying. But still, there's this little voice that says you should be doing something that matters.

I like Bach. I like Randy Newman.

The Lord wants us to be filled with hope-not just because it points us to a brighter tomorrow, but because it changes the quality of our lives.

There are lying looks, as well as lying words; dissembling smiles, deceiving signs, and even a lying silence.

Where are you originally from?” “The planet Lorien, three hundred million miles away.” “Must have been a long trip, John Smith.” “Took almost a year. Next time I’m bringing a book.

I wouldnt be here today if it were not for the NHS, I have received a large amount of high-quality treatment without which I would not have survived.

And what would our ideas of God, of religion, be like if they had come to us through the minds of women? Ever think of that?