A great artist can paint a great picture on a small canvas.

Perhaps nobody ever accomplishes all that he feels lies in him to do; but nearly every one who tries his power touches the walls of his being.

I am convinced that the majority of people would be generous from selfish motives, if they had the opportunity.

How many wars have been caused by fits of indigestion, and how many more dynasties have been upset by the love of woman than by the hate of man.

It is fortunate that each generation does not comprehend its own ignorance. We are thus enabled to call our ancestors barbarous.

The thing generally raised on city land is taxes.

Simplicity is making the journey of this life with just baggage enough.

Everybody talks about the weather, but nobody does anything about it.

There isn't a wife in the world who has not taken the exact measure of her husband, weighed him and settled him in her own mind, and knows him as well as if she had ordered him after designs and specifications of her own.

There was never a nation great until it came to the knowledge that it had nowhere in the world to go for help.

No man but feels more of a man in the world if he have a bit of ground that he can call his own. However small it is on the surface, it is four thousand miles deep; and that is a very handsome property.

There is nothing that disgusts a man like getting beaten at chess by a woman.

One of the best things in the world to be is a boy; it requires no experience, but needs some practice to be a good one.

Politics makes strange bedfellows.

Lettuce is like conversation; it must be fresh and crisp, so sparkling that you scarcely notice the bitter in it.

The boy who expects every morning to open into a new world finds that today is like yesterday, but he believes tomorrow will be different.

Regrets are idle; yet history is one long regret. Everything might have turned out so differently.

What a man needs in gardening is a cast-iron back, with a hinge in it.

People always overdo the matter when they attempt deception.

A great artist can paint a great picture on a small canvas.

Goodness comes out of people who bask in the sun, as it does out of a sweet apple roasted before the fire.

Happy is said to be the family which can eat onions together. They are, for the time being, separate, from the world, and have a harmony of aspiration.

We are half ruined by conformity, but we should be wholly ruined without it.

No one can sincerely try to help another without helping himself.

Mud-pies gratify one of our first and best instincts. So long as we are dirty, we are pure.

The excellence of a gift lies in its appropriateness rather than in its value.

Public opinion is stronger than the legislature, and nearly as strong as the ten commandments.

There is no such thing as absolute value in this world. You can only estimate what a thing is worth to you.

There is no moment of delight in any pilgrimage like the beginning of it.

A cynic might suggest as the motto of modern life this simple legend Just as good as the real.

One of the best things in the world to be is a boy it requires no experience but needs some practice to be a good one.

The boy who expects every morning to open into a new world finds that today is like yesterday but he believes tomorrow will be different.

To poke a wood fire is more solid enjoyment than almost anything else in the world.

Snobbery, being an aspiring failing, is sometimes the prophecy of better things.

Hoe while it is spring, and enjoy the best anticipations. It is not much matter if things do not turn out well.

Being a cover artist is not like being a real artist. That's just copying what someone else did.

The artist need not know very much; best of all let him work instinctively and paint as naturally as he breathes or walks.

What an artist learns matters little. What he himself discovers has a real worth for him, and gives him the necessary incitement to work.

Beauty, like truth, is relative to the time when one lives and to the individual who can grasp it. The expression of beauty is in direct ratio to the power of conception the artist has acquired.

I'm inspired by nature. Other artist's work is important for developing my perception.

There is only one position for an artist anywhere; and that is upright.

The difference between a bad artist and a good one is: the bad artist seems to copy a great deal; the good one really does.

To say that an artist sells out means that an artist is making a conscious choice to compromise his music, to to weaken his music for the sake of commercial gain.

What do you say when someone has truly inspired you? How do you express to an artist how deeply their work has affected you?

An original artist is unable to copy. So he has only to copy in order to be original.

When I say artist I mean the man who is building things - creating molding the earth - whether it be the plains of the west - or the iron ore of Penn. It's all a big game of construction - some with a brush - some with a shovel - some choose a pen.

You have to find what makes you stable in the storm. Then, no matter what's happening round you, no matter what the hype or the publicity, you can still manage to make leaps in your work as an artist.

The key to the mystery of a great artist is that for reasons unknown, he will give away his energies and his life just to make sure that one note follows another... and leaves us with the feeling that something is right in the world.

I've always felt that if one was going to take seriously this vocation as an artist, you have to get beyond that decorative facade.