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All effort at originality must end either in the quaint or the monstrous. For no man knows himself as an original he can only believe it on the report of others.

Washington Allston

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Washington Allston
Age: 63 †
Born: 1779
Born: November 5
Died: 1843
Died: July 9
Novelist
Painter
Poet
Writer
Charleston
South Carolina
W. Allston
Washington Alston
Allston
Must
Originality
Believe
Reports
Men
Originals
Original
Either
Effort
Quaint
Others
Monstrous
Ends
Report

More quotes by Washington Allston

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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.
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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.
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If I prove extravagant, I shall be more so from ignorance than willfulness. I am not wholly insensible to the pleasures of the world, therefore shall not be governed entirely by necessity but I flatter myself, at least, in being able to restrain their gratification within due bonds.
Washington Allston
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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!
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Selfishness in art, as in other things, is sensibility kept at home.
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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.
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I cannot believe that any man who deserved fame ever labored for it that is, directly. For, as fame is but the contingent of excellence, it would be like an attempt to project a shadow, before its substance was obtained.
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The painter who is content with the praise of the world for what does not satisfy himself, is not an artist, but an artisan for though his reward be only praise, his pay is that of a mechanic.
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Desert being the essential condition of praise, there can be no reality in the one without the other.
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He who has no pleasure in looking up, is not fit so much as to look down.
Washington Allston
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Injustice allowed at home is not likely to be corrected abroad.
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Never expect justice from a vain man if he has the negative magnanimity not to disparage you, it is the most you can expect.
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The greatest of all fools is the proud fool--who is at the mercy of every fool he meets.
Washington Allston
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The only competition worthy of a wise man is with himself.
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The love of gain never made a painter but it has marred many.
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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.
Washington Allston
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The most common disguise of Envy is in praise of what is subordinate.
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The most intangible, and therefore the worst, kind of a lie is a half truth. This is the peculiar device of a conscientious detractor.
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Never judge a work of art by its defects.
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Nothing gets you behind faster than trying to keep up with people who are already there.
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