"I can't tell you if genius is hereditary, because heaven has granted me no offspring." — James Whistler

To say of a picture, as is often said in its praise, that it shows great and earnest labour, is to say that it is incomplete and unfit for view.

You should not say it is not good. You should say you do not like it; and then, you know, you're perfectly safe.

I maintain that two and two would continue to make four, in spite of the whine of the amateur for three, or the cry of the critic for five.

To say to the painter that Nature is to be taken as she is, is to say to the player that he may sit on the piano.