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But the sound of water escaping from mill-dams, &c., willows, old rotten planks, slimy posts, and brickwork, I love such things. Shakespeare could make everything poetical; he tells us of poor Tom's haunts among "sheep cotes and mills." As long as I do paint, I shall never cease to paint such places. They have always been my delight.

— John Constable

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More quotes by John Constable

No man who can do any one thing well will be able to any different thing equally well.

He seems to paint with tinted steam, so evanescent, and so airy.

I never saw an ugly thing in my life: for let the form of an object be what it may—light, shade, and perspective will always make it beautiful.

We see nothing truly till we understand it.

his lectures History of Landscape Painting (1836)

It is so ambiguous as to be scarcely intelligible in some parts (and those the principal), yet as a whole, it is novel and affecting.

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