And those who paint 'em truest praise 'em most.

-Addison,Joseph
  The Campaign,1.476.

   Paint as they spoke in Sparta.

-Diderot, Denis
^81 Pense¤  es de¤  tache¤ e s sur la peinture.

His colours laid so thick on every place, As only showed the paint, but hid the face.

-Dryden,John
  Epistle'To my honoured friend Sir Robert Howard', l.75^6.

The artist should not only paint what hesees before him, but also what he sees within him. If, however, he sees nothing within him, then he should also omit to paint that which he sees before him.

-Friedrich, Caspar David
Quoted in Caspar David Friedrich1774^1840, Tate Gallery (1972).

Some advice: do not paint too much after nature. Art is an abstraction; derive this abstraction from nature while dreaming before it, and think more ofthe creationwhich will result than of nature.

-Gauguin, Paul
  Letter to Emile Schuffenecker.

Painters of history make the dead live, and do not begin to livethemselvestill theyare dead.Ipaint the living, and they make me live!

-Kneller, Godfrey
When asked why he preferred portraits to more prestigious history scenes. Quoted in  A Cunningham The Lives of the Most Eminent Painters, Sculptors and  Architects (1829).

A girl whose cheeks are covered with paint Has an advantage with me over one whose ain't.

-Nash, (Frederic) Ogden
Hard Lines,'Biological Reflection'.

A ship is always referred to as 'she' because it costs so much to keep her in paint and powder.

-Nimitz, Admiral Chester (William)
  In the NewYork Times, 24 May.

I have seen, and heard, much of Cockney impudence before now; but never expected to hear a coxcomb ask two hundred guineas for flinging a pot of paint in the public's face.

-Ruskin,John
  OnWhistler's Nocturne in Black and Gold. Fors Clavigera (published1871^84), letter no.79,18 Jun.

Life is not easy. I paint the memory of happiness.

-Saifoutdinov, Anvar
Quoted by M S Mason in Christian Science Monitor,19 Nov1992.

Every time I paint a portrait I lose a friend.

-Sargent,John Singer
Attributed.

Icannot help itthat my paintings donot sell.Thetimewill come when people will see that they are worth more than the price of the paint.

-van Gogh,Vincent
  Letter to his brotherTheo, 24 Oct.