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About this quote

What does it mean?
Nature is the endless source of all true excellence and creativity.
In plain terms
Nature provides unlimited inspiration for excellence.
What can you take from it?
Draw inspiration from nature.

Where it applies

  • artistic creation
  • philosophy

Putting it to work

  • study nature for ideas

Questions to consider

  • Is nature the only source?

Another view

Artificial sources can also inspire.

More from Joshua Reynolds

  1. The greatest natural genius cannot subsist on its own stock: he who resolves never to ransack any mind but his own, will be soon reduced, from mere barrenness,…

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  2. What has pleased, and continues to please, is likely to please again: hence are derived the rules of art, and on this immoveable foundation they must ever stan…

    Permalink to quote #13
  3. 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 for…

    Permalink to quote #10

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