An artist who produces valuable work is not always able to give an account of his own or others' performances.
We know of no world except in relation to mankind; and we wish for no Art that does not bear the mark of this relation.
Higher aims are in themselves more valuable, even if unfulfilled, than lower ones quite attained.
Blunt naïvety, stubborn vigour, scrupulous observance of rule, and any other epithets which may apply to older German Art, are a part of every earlier and simpler artistic method. The older Venetians, Florentines, and others had it all too.
Because Albrecht Dürer, with his incomparable talent, could never rise to the idea of the symmetry of beauty, or even to the thought of a fitting conformity to the object in view, are we never to spurn the ground!