Washington Allston Quotes & Sayings

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

The most intangible, and therefore the worst, kind of a lie is a half truth. This is the peculiar device of a conscientious detractor. — Washington Allston

He who has no pleasure in looking up, is not fit so much as to look down. — Washington Allston

The only competition worthy of a wise man is with himself. — Washington Allston

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

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

Reputation is but a synonym of popularity: dependent on suffrage, to be increased or diminished at the will of the voters. — Washington Allston

The most common disguise of Envy is in praise of what is subordinate. — Washington Allston

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! — Washington Allston

Nothing is rarer than a solitary lie; for lies breed like Surinam toads; you cannot tell one but out it comes with a hundred young ones on its back. — Washington Allston

Make no man your idol, for the best man must have faults; and his faults will insensibly become yours, in addition to your own. — Washington Allston

The Painter who seeks popularity in Art closes the door upon his own genius. — Washington Allston

Nothing gets you behind faster than trying to keep up with people who are already there. — Washington Allston

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

The greatest of all fools is the proud fool
who is at the mercy of every fool he meets. — Washington Allston

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. — Washington Allston

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. — Washington Allston

Desert being the essential condition of praise, there can be no reality in the one without the other. — Washington Allston

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

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

Selfishness in art, as in other things, is sensibility kept at home. — Washington Allston

Distinction is the consequence, never the object of a great mind. — Washington Allston

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. — Washington Allston

Humility is also a healing virtue; it will cicatrize a thousand wounds, which pride would keep forever open. — Washington Allston