Of what use were the arts if they were only the reproduction and the imitation of life?

The study of social progress is to-day not less needed in literature than is the analysis of the human heart.

What is the use of theorizing as to wherein lies the charm that moves us?

Fainthearted animals move about in herds. The lion walks alone in the desert. Let the poet always walk thus.

I love the majesty of human suffering.

Silence alone is great; all else is feebleness . . . Perform with all your heart your long and heavy task. . . . Then as do I, say naught, but suffer and die.

I think, then, that man, after having satisfied his first longing for facts, wanted something fuller - some grouping, some adaptation to his capacity and experience, of the links of this vast chain of events which his sight could not take in.