Howard Pyle Quotes

My objective in teaching my pupils is that they should be fitted for any kind of art.

However, if Sir Launcelot of the Lake failed now and then in his behavior, who is there in the world shall say, 'I never fell into error'? And if he more than once offended, who is there shall have hardihood to say, 'I never committed offence'?

Lo, God! I am Thy handiwork. I have sinned and have done great evil, yet I am still Thy handiwork, who hath made me what I am. So, though I may not undo that which I have done, yet I may, with Thy aid, do better hereafter than I have done heretofore.

Throw your heart into the picture and then jump in after it.

You who so plod amid serious things that you feel it shame to give yourself up even for a few short moments to mirth and joyousness in the land of Fancy; you who think that life hath not to do with innocent laughter that can harm no one; these pages are not for you.

A good deal of large and rather interesting work is drifting my way.

What is done is done; and the cracked egg cannot be cured.

For ages past the Genius of Literature and the Genius of Art have walked together hand in hand. For the Goddess of letters is blind, and only she of Art can lend her sight.

All the students have shown more advance in two months of summer study than they have in a year of ordinary instruction, largely due to their free and wholesome life in the open air.

Up rose Robin Hood

Let me tell you, an I had the shaping of things in this world, ye should all three have been clothed in the finest silks, and ride upon milk-white horses, with pages at your side, and feed upon nothing but whipped cream and strawberries; for such a life would surely befit your looks. At

I think it likely that some of my pupils will reach unusual distinction.

Let us e'er be merry while we may, for man is but dust, and he hath but a span to live here till the worm getteth him, as our good gossip Swanthold sayeth; so let life be merry while it lasts, say I.

Art is the expression of those beauties and emotions that stir the human soul.

He who jumps for the moon and gets it not leaps higher than he who stoops for a penny in the mud.

And now, dear friend, you who have journeyed with me in all these merry doings, I will not bid you follow me further, but will drop your hand here with a good den, if you wish it, for that which cometh herafter, speaks of the breaking up of things, and shows how joys and pleasures that are dead and gone can never be set upon their feet to walk again.

Your subjects have had a history - try to reveal it in your picture.

Now there was no sign of any foul weather, but when one wishes to do a thing . . . one finds no lack of reasons for the doing.

Talk about life - but in your own way.

Then all was quiet save only for the low voices of those that talked together, ... , and saving, also, for the mellow snoring of Friar Tuck, who enjoyed his sleep with a noise as of one sawing soft wood very slowly.

Young people, don't get the idea that you have an artistic temperament which must be humored. Don't believe you cannot do good work unless you feel in tile mood for it. That is all nonsense. I frequently have to force myself to make a start in the morning; but after a short while I find I can work. Only hard and regular work will bring success.

When the flood cometh it sweepeth away grain as well as chaff.

(H)ope, be it never so faint, bringeth a gleam into darkness, like a little rushlight that costeth but a groat.

Gaffer Swanthold speaks truth when he saith, 'Better a crust with content than honey with a sour heart.

We were born to crucify the truth; it is our mission in life, and we must not be blamed when we fulfill our destiny.

I am of use to the younger artists through the advice and criticism which I give them.

I managed to potter along tolerably well in the morning, sitting in the sun and sketching the old buildings ... but in the afternoon, sitting in the shade ... with stiff fingers and chilled bones ... the water froze in little cakes all over the picture.

I cannot waste my time teaching mediocrity," to J. Henry Harper, when he quit teaching an open-to-all illustrating class at Drexel Institute... from Where Your Heart Is...The Story of Harvey Dunn, Artist. page 32.

Will you come with me, sweet Reader? I thank you. Give me your hand.

IN MERRY ENGLAND in the time of old, when good King Henry the Second ruled the land, there lived within the green glades of Sherwood Forest, near Nottingham Town, a famous outlaw whose name was Robin Hood.

The right to suffer is one of the joys of a free economy.

And, indeed it is a very pleasant thing for to ride forth in the dawning of a Springtime day. For then the little birds do sing their sweetest song, all joining in one joyous medley, whereof one may scarce tell one note from another, so multitudinous is that pretty roundelay; then do the growing things of the earth smell the sweetest in the freshness of the early daytime - the fair flowers, the shrubs, and the blossoms upon the trees; then doth the dew bespangle all the sward as with an incredible multitude of jewels of various colors; then is all the world sweet and clean and new, as though it had been fresh created for him who came to roam abroad so early in the morning.

The student learns rules but all the rules in the world never make a picture.

It doth make a man better,' quoth Robin Hood, 'to bear of those noble men so long ago. When one doth list to such tales, his soul doth say, 'put by thy poor little likings and seek to do likewise.' Truly, one may not do as nobly one's self, but in the striving one is better ...