Washington Allston
Washington Allston
Washington Allstonwas an American painter and poet, born in Waccamaw Parish, South Carolina. Allston pioneered America's Romantic movement of landscape painting. He was well known during his lifetime for his experiments with dramatic subject matter and his bold use of light and atmospheric color...
NationalityAmerican
ProfessionPainter
Date of Birth5 November 1779
CityGeorgetown, SC
CountryUnited States of America
men mind half
An original mind is rarely understood, until it has been reflected from some half-dozen congenial with it, so averse are men to admitting the true in an unusual form; whilst any novelty, however fantastic, however false, is greedily swallowed.
art tyrants mind
Reverence is an ennobling sentiment; it is felt to be degrading only by the vulgar mind, which would escape the sense of its own littleness by elevating itself into an antagonist of what is above it. He that has no pleasure in looking up is not fit so much as to look down. Of such minds are mannerists in Art; in the world, tyrants of all sorts.
mind distinction objects
Distinction is the consequence, never the object of a great mind.
voters reputation popularity
Reputation is but a synonym of popularity: dependent on suffrage, to be increased or diminished at the will of the voters.
respect looks fit
He who has no pleasure in looking up, is not fit so much as to look down.
evil lazy delay
It is my greatest misfortune to be too lazy, and by the few mortifications I have already set with on that account I predict many evils in my future life. I have always the inclination to do what I ought; but by continually procrastinating for tomorrow the business of today, I insensibly delay, until at the end of one month I find myself in the same place as when I began it.
fool proud mercy
The greatest of all fools is the proud fool--who is at the mercy of every fool he meets.
envy common praise
The most common disguise of Envy is in praise of what is subordinate.
eye color giving
Titian, Tintoretto, and Paul Veronese absolutely enchanted me, for they took away all sense of subject... It was the poetry of color which I felt, procreative in its nature, giving birth to a thousand things which the eye cannot see, and distinct from their cause.
truth men spiders
If the whole world should agree to speak nothing but truth, what an abridgment it would make of speech! And what an unravelling there would be of the invisible webs which men, like so many spiders, now weave about each other!
men vanity justice
Never expect justice from a vain man; if he has the negative magnanimity not to disparage you, it is the most you can expect.
art home selfishness
Selfishness in art, as in other things, is sensibility kept at home.
hate silence excellence
Fame has no necessary conjunction with praise; it may exist without the breath of a word: it is a recognition of excellence which must be felt, but need not be spoken. Even the envious must feel it,--feel it, and hate in silence.
reality essentials desert
Desert being the essential condition of praise, there can be no reality in the one without the other.