The following are excerpts in the Modern Art chapter of the "Oil Painting Techniques and Materials" book by Harold Speed

"There is, strictly speaking, no modern art any more than there is any modern truth. There is just Art and Truth. There is good and bad art, as there is truth and untruth. There is trivial and profound art, as there is trivial and profound truth. You cannot scrap the edifice of the traditional art we inherit, and start to build an entirely new edifice, any more than you can scrap the efifice of truth that has been built up during the ages and start and entirely new one...When you put adjectives before it [Art], as Modern Art, Post Impressionist Art, Futurist Art, Vorticist Art, etc., you are but writing it down as second rate. An unconscious acknowledgment of this can be seen in the vehemence with which the champions of these causes pursue their advocacy. The fanatic, by his fanaticism, shows that he subconsciously doubts his own cause. The deep conviction that truth always gives, and the feeling that it will ultimately triumph, suggest quieter methods of controversy." p. 36

"Carried on by men believing in evolution rather than revolution, and content to do their work as well as they honestly can under the guidance of that inner light that first urged them to become painters; and sparing themselves no effort to make their work better. Thinking more of sincerity than of originality, conscious that originality that is not the product of sincerity is but peculiarity, and that sincerity alone points the road to the only originality anybody is capable of...For what is original is only what is true, a newly perceived truth; the peculiar is the imitation article." p. 39

"One is naturally dumb before a fine work of art, and it is not a good subject for literature, being its own complete expression. I think it was Burne Jones who said that the greatest compliment people could pay a picture was to say "Oh!", just "Oh!" when they saw it. And that is all there is to say, anything more is apt to be as dull as a dissertation on the beauty of a flower". p.15

"It is so much easier to destroy than to create, so much more effect can be got for your effort. And to those not capable of the long-sustained effort creative work requires, destroying is very tempting as a substitute. One seems to be doing so much, and certainly attracts more attention"p.35