Benjamin Haydon
Benjamin Haydon
Benjamin Robert Haydonwas an English painter who specialised in grand historical pictures, although he also painted a few contemporary subjects and portraits. His commercial success was damaged by his often tactless dealings with patrons, and by the enormous scale on which he preferred to work. He was troubled by financial problems throughout his life, which led to several periods of imprisonment for debt. He committed suicide in 1846...
NationalityBritish
ProfessionArtist
Date of Birth26 January 1786
Benjamin Haydon quotes about
acquire add age giving heaven knowledge knows leading learning points result sad trouble
This is an age of intellectual sauces, of essence, of distillation. We have ''conclusions'' without deductions, ''abridgments of history'' and ''abridgments of science'' without leading facts. We have ''animals'' for literature, ''Cabinet'' Encyclopaedias, ''Family'' Libraries, ''Diffusion'' Societies, and heaven knows what else! What is all this for? Not to add knowledge to the learned, but to tell points to the ignorant, without giving them the trouble to acquire the links. Oh! it is sad work. And the result will be injurious to all classes.
men passed perfectly reached secret sure
Men who have reached and passed 45, have a look as if waiting for the secret of the other world, and as if they were perfectly sure of having found out the secret of this.
art reality perfection
Art is a reality, not a definition; inasmuch as it approaches a reality, it approaches perfection, and inasmuch as it approaches a mere definition, it is imperfect and untrue.
government two evil
All government is an evil, but, of the two form's of that evil, democracy or monarchy, the sounder is monarchy; the more able to do its will, democracy.
men quality done
When a man is no longer anxious to do better than well, he is done for.
character winning names
The great difficulty is first to win a reputation; the next to keep it while you live; and the next to preserve it after you die, when affection and interest are over, and nothing but sterling excellence can preserve your name. Never suffer youth to be an excuse for inadequacy, nor age and fame to be an excuse for indolence.
evil human-nature inherent
There surely is in human nature an inherent propensity to extract all the good out of all the evil.
suffering age reputation
Never suffer youth to be an excuse for inadequacy, nor age and fame to be an excuse for indolence.
god real justice
Mistrusts sometimes come over one's mind of the justice of God. But let a real misery come again, and to whom do we fly? To whom do we instinctively and immediately look up?
devil triumph satan
Satan is to be punished eternally in the end, but for a while he triumphs.
confusion newton mathematics
Newton's health, and confusion to mathematics.
ordinary genius done
Genius is nothing more than common faculties refined to a greater intensity. There are no astonishing ways of doing astonishing things. All astonishing things are done by ordinary materials.
fighting men people
The explanation of the propensity of the English people to portrait painting is to be found in their relish for a Fact. Let a man do the grandest things, fight the greatest battles, or be distinguished by the most brilliant personal heroism, yet the English people would prefer his portrait to a painting of the great deed. The likeness they can judge of; his existence is a Fact. But the truth of the picture of his deeds they cannot judge of, for they have no imagination.
husband men giving
The longer a man lives in this world the more he must be convinced that all domestic quarrels had better never be obtruded on the public; for, let the husband be right, or let him be wrong, there is always a sympathy existing for women which is certain to give the man the worst of it.