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The mind is but a barren soil; a soil which is soon exhausted, and will produce no crop, or only one, unless it be continually fertilized and enriched with foreign matter.

— Joshua Reynolds

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More quotes by Joshua Reynolds

Nature is, and must be the fountain which alone is inexhaustible; and from which all excellencies must originally flow.

A mere copier of nature can never produce any thing great, can never raise and enlarge the conceptions, or warm the heart of the spectator.

God does not give excellence to men but as the reward of labor.

Nothing is denied to well-directed labor; nothing is ever to be attained without it.

Words should be employed as the means, not as the end: language is the instrument, conviction is the work.

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Attribution

Quote text and notes from Wikiquote: Joshua Reynolds (page history), available under CC BY-SA 4.0. Source quality and labels are our own summary of what Wikiquote records.