William Hogarth Quotes

#1. Time is not a great artist but weakens all he touches.

William Hogarth

#2. I have generally found that persons who had studied painting least were the best judges of it.

William Hogarth

#3. I turned my thoughts to a still more novel mode ... to compose pictures on canvas similar to representations on the stage ... my picture is my stage, and men and women my players exhibited in a 'dumb' show.

William Hogarth

#4. Simplicity, without variety, is wholly insipid.

William Hogarth

#5. All the world is competent to judge my pictures except those who are of my profession.

William Hogarth

#6. I think it is owing to the good sense of the English that they have not painted better.

William Hogarth

#7. I had rather, if cruelty has been prevented by the four prints [The Four Stages of Cruelty], be maker of them than of the [Raphael] cartoons.

William Hogarth

#8. I know no such thing as genius, - genius is nothing but labor and diligence.

William Hogarth

#9. Straight lines vary only in length, and therefore are least ornamental.

William Hogarth

#10. The serpentine line, or the line of grace, by its waving and winding at the same time different ways, leads the eye in a pleasing manner along the continuity of its variety.

William Hogarth