The only way I can keep up my spirits is by resolutely resisting all disposition to repine, and by fighting perseveringly against all the obstacles that hinder the progress of art.
"I have been told several times since my return that I was born one hundred years too soon for the arts in our country.

I have replied that, if that be the case, I will try and make it but fifty.

I am more and more persuaded that I have quite as much to do with the pen for the arts as the pencil, and if I can in my day so enlighten the public mind as to make the way easier for those that come after me, I don't know that I shall not have served the cause of the fine arts as effectively as by painting pictures which might be appreciated one hundred years after I am gone.

If I am to be the Pioneer and am fitted for it, why should I not glory as much in felling trees and clearing away the rubbish as in showing the decorations suited to a more advanced state of cultivation ?...
"You will certainly have the blues when you first arrive, but the longer you stay abroad the more severe will be the disease.

Excuse my predictions....