When you are painting you ...

When you are painting you should take a flat mirror and often look at your work within it, and it will then be seen in reverse, and will appear to be by the hand of some other master, and you will be better able to judge of its faults than in any other way.
When you are painting you should take a flat mirror and often look at your work within it, and it will then be seen in reverse, and will appear to be by the hand of some other master, and you will be better able to judge of its faults than in any other way.

Quotes from the same author

All our knowledge has its origins in our perceptions.
It had long since come to my attention that people of accomplishment rarely sat back and let things happen to them. They went out and happened to things.
Iron rusts from disuse; water loses its purity from stagnation... even so does inaction sap the vigor of the mind.
Nothing strengthens authority so much as silence.
He who is fixed to a star does not change his mind.