Good colour can never be got by putting down colour which is not seen
 Samuel Butler, The Note-Books of Samuel Butler (1912). copy citation

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Author Samuel Butler
Source The Note-Books of Samuel Butler
Topic good
Date 1912
Language English
Reference
Note
Weblink http://www.gutenberg.org/files/6173/6173-h/6173-h.htm

Context

“To like colour, to wish to find it, and thus to have got naturally into a habit of looking for it, this alone will enable a man to see colour and to make a note of it when he has seen it, and this alone will lead him towards a pleasing and natural scheme of colour in his work. Good colour can never be got by putting down colour which is not seen; at any rate only a master who has long served accuracy can venture on occasional inaccuracy—telling a lie, knowing it to be a lie, and as, se non vera, ben trovata. The grown man in his art may do this, and indeed is not a man at all unless he knows how to do it daily and hourly without departure from the truth even in his boldest lie;” source