Fear, either as a principle or a motive, is the beginning of all evil.

Conflict, which rouses up the best and highest powers in some characters, in others not only jars the whole being, but paralyzes the faculties.

He that seeks popularity in art closes the door on his own genius: as he must needs paint for other minds, and not for his own.

Out of the attempt to harmonize our actual life with our aspirations, our experience with our faith, we make poetry, - or, it may be, religion.

You must never believe what the newspapers say. I stand aghast at the impudence of the lies they contain, things not only false in fact, but absolutely impossible.

All my experience of the world teaches me that in ninety-nine cases out of a hundred the safe side and the just side of a question is the generous side and the merciful side.

As the rolling stone gathers no moss, so the roving heart gathers no affections.