Quote

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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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
Form
Originals
Swallowed
Mind
Original
Whilst
Men
Fantastic
Admitting
False
Reflected
However
Novelty
Understood
Dozen
Greedily
Half
Unusual
Congenial
True
Rarely
Averse

More quotes by Washington Allston

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If an Artist love his Art for its own sake, he will delight in excellence wherever he meets it, as well in the work of another as in his own.
Washington Allston
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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.
Washington Allston
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The only competition worthy of a wise man is with himself.
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No man knows himself as an original.
Washington Allston
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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.
Washington Allston
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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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Humility is also a healing virtue it will cicatrize a thousand wounds, which pride would keep forever open.
Washington Allston
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In the same degree that we overrate ourselves, we shall underrate others.
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Make no man your idol, for the best man must have faults and his faults will insensibly become yours, in addition to your own.
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Desert being the essential condition of praise, there can be no reality in the one without the other.
Washington Allston
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The love of gain never made a painter but it has marred many.
Washington Allston
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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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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.
Washington Allston
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Selfishness in art, as in other things, is sensibility kept at home.
Washington Allston
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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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Nothing gets you behind faster than trying to keep up with people who are already there.
Washington Allston
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The Painter who seeks popularity in Art closes the door upon his own genius.
Washington Allston
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I am inclined to think from my own experience that the difficulty to eminence lies not in the road, but in the timidity of the traveler.
Washington Allston
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I have no ambition to shine beyond my abilities.
Washington Allston
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Never judge a work of art by its defects.
Washington Allston