Authors:

If the imagination is shackled, and nothing is described but what we see, seldom will anything truly great be produced either in Painting or Poetry

Thomas Cole, Louis Legrand Noble (1853). “The Course of Empire: Voyage of Life, and Other Pictures of Thomas Cole, N.A., with Selections from His Letters and Miscellaneous Writings: Illustrative of His Life, Character, and Genius”, p.93
If the imagination is shackled, and nothing is described but what we see, seldom will anything truly great be produced either in Painting or Poetry