John Sheffield, 1st Duke of Buckingham and Normanby "An Essay on Poetry", line 2; cited from The Poetical Works of the Most Noble John Sheffield, Duke of Buckingham (Edinburg [sic]: Apollo Press, 1780) p. 281. <br class="br">Misattributed in Temple Bar (February 1863) p. 377, and by Giga Quotes http://www.giga-usa.com/quotes/authors/george_villiers_a001.htm. <br class="br">Misattributed
“Of all those arts in which the wise excel,
Nature’s chief masterpiece is writing well.”
John Sheffield, 1st Duke of Buckingham and Normanby (1648–1721) English poet and notable Tory politician of the late Stuart period
Essay on Poetry (published 1723).
“A friend may well be reckoned the masterpiece of nature.”
Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882) American philosopher, essayist, and poet
1840s, Essays: First Series (1841), Friendship
“The public will accept a masterpiece, but it will not accept an attempt to write a masterpiece.”
George Moore (novelist) (1852–1933) Irish novelist, short-story writer, poet, art critic, memoirist and dramatist
Vain Fortune http://www.gutenberg.org/files/11303/11303.txt, Chapter 1 (1891).
“The heart of a father is the masterpiece of nature. ”
Antoine François Prévost (1697–1763) French novelist
“Women are present as well as men in Shahnameh, the masterpiece of Ferdowsi.”
Chista Yasrebi (1968)
Outlooks <br class="br">Source: Center for the Great Islamic Encyclopedia, 2014 https://www.cgie.org.ir/fa/news/11919
“Nature's great masterpiece, an elephant;
the only harmless great thing.”
John Donne (1572–1631) English poet
“Every living thing is a masterpiece, written by nature and edited by evolution.”
Neil deGrasse Tyson (1958) American astrophysicist and science communicator
“To be a well-favoured man is the gift of fortune; but to write and read comes by nature.”
William Shakespeare book Much Ado About Nothing
Source: Much Ado About Nothing
Gregory Colbert (1960) Canadian photographer
As quoted in "Epiphanies in Sepia and Umber" by Matthew Gurewitsch, in The Wall Street Journal, (15 March 2005)
Context: In the next 25 years, the human race will have to decide whether or not to preserve the bestiary of Nature’s living masterpieces. Ashes and Snow is not meant to tell people to do some things and not to do other things. It’s meant to inspire. I hope it’s not a requiem.
Isidore Isou (1925–2007) Romanian-born French poet, film critic and visual artist
Venom and Eternity (1951), Danielle's Monologue
