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

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

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

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

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 of nothing.

A mere copier of nature can never produce anything great.

The greatest man is he who forms the taste of a nation; the next greatest is he who corrupts it.

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

It is but a poor eloquence which only shows that the orator can talk.

All the gestures of children are graceful; the reign of distortion and unnatural attitudes commences with the introduction of the dancing master.

Words should be employed as the means, not the end; language is the instrument, conviction is the work.

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

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

Certainly, nothing can be more simple than monotony.

Poetry operates by raising our curiosity, engaging the mind by degrees to take an interest in the event, keeping that event suspended, and surprising at last with an unexpected catastrophe.

The character of a true men is found out by his amusements.

The association promotes a way of life, not causes; a harmony in living, not political faiths; a bilateral loyalty, not commercial or social projects. Yet it is an association for as noble a purpose as any involved in any prior decisions.

I was always told I was special. And I was also assured that I had a gift and a purpose.

Our purpose is simply to ask how theological principles can be shown to have usable secular analogues that throw light upon the nature of language.

If you look to lead, invest at least 40% of your time managing yourself - your ethics, character, principles, purpose, motivation, and conduct. Invest at least 30% managing those with authority over you, and 15% managing your peers.

But once I acclimated and really used fame for what it was offering me as a tool to serve my life purpose of inspiring and contributing, then it started to get fun again.

A purpose, an intention, a design, strikes everywhere even the careless, the most stupid thinker.

Having a sense of purpose is having a sense of self. A course to plot is a destination to hope for.

My purpose... to go on with my heart and soul, devoting all my energies to Girl Scouts, and heart and hand with them, we will make our lives and the lives of the future girls happy, healthy and holy.

So that is how I ended up with those two titles, I like Accidentally on Purpose better - it is how we work in our trade - is it really an accident, or is there a thread of destiny in there? That was the intention, I am not sure I found out.

The purpose of a business is to create a customer.

Our purpose, as we face these challenges, remains clear - fair and orderly markets that allow for efficient capital formation, while protecting the interests of investors.

A characteristic of older folksongs, in most cases, is that we don't know their composers or authors. Older folksongs were written often with no commercial purpose in mind. They were passed down by word of mouth, from generation to generation.

I think the studio gave me that series on purpose, because they knew perfectly well that Robert Riskin was ill and that I needed to go to work. They gave me that series to do.

Nothing contributes so much to tranquilize the mind as a steady purpose - a point on which the soul may fix its intellectual eye.

So Ham's wife that was preserved on the Ark was a Negro of the seed of Cain and there was a priestly purpose in it, that the Devil would have a representation as well as God.

Our lives are programmed at conception and are endowed with purpose and meaning.

It is not the purpose of the ad or commercial to make the reader or listener say, 'My what a clever ad.' It is the purpose of advertising to make the reader say, 'I believe I'll buy one when I'm shopping tomorrow'.

The purpose of science is not to analyze or describe but to make useful models of the world. A model is useful if it allows us to get use out of it.

My one purpose in life is to serve as a warning to others.

Tony Blair faced a massive defection from his own party ranks during voting around the intervention in Iraq. For our present purpose, the point is not that he survived the defection, but that he had to face it.

Censorship always defeats it own purpose, for it creates in the end the kind of society that is incapable of exercising real discretion.

The trip I made to Angola to study the prehistoric contents of the gravel beds as a means of deciding the age of the deposits and their economic potential was the first time prehistory had ever been used for such a purpose.

The State is the altar of political freedom and, like the religious altar, it is maintained for the purpose of human sacrifice.

Consumption is the sole end and purpose of all production; and the interest of the producer ought to be attended to, only so far as it may be necessary for promoting that of the consumer.

I am persuaded, that if any attempt is made to improve the education of the poor, and such an unmanly spirit should guide the resolution of a society or committee for that purpose, it would render the design abortive.

I am here for a purpose and that purpose is to grow into a mountain, not to shrink to a grain of sand. Henceforth will I apply ALL my efforts to become the highest mountain of all and I will strain my potential until it cries for mercy.

What is the primary purpose of a political leader? To build a majority. If voters care about parking lots, then talk about parking lots.

Above all be of single aim; have a legitimate and useful purpose, and devote yourself unreservedly to it.

The photograph reverses the purpose of travel, which until now had been to encounter the strange and unfamiliar.

Science and art, or by the same token, poetry and prose differ from one another like a journey and an excursion. The purpose of the journey is its goal, the purpose of an excursion is the process.

I didn't get old on purpose, it just happened. If you're lucky, it could happen to you.

The mind must see visual achievement of the purpose before action is initiated.

The devil can cite Scripture for his purpose.