To be alone is the fate of all great minds—a fate deplored at times, but still always chosen as the less grievous of two evils.

To call the world God is not to explain it; it is only to enrich our language with a superfluous synonym.

Every nation ridicules other nations, and all are right.

Treat a work of art like a prince. Let it speak to you first.

(Politeness is) a tacit agreement that people's miserable defects, whether moral or intellectual, shall on either side be ignored and not be made the subject of reproach.

Mostly the loss teaches us only about the value of things.

A man of intellect is like an artist who gives a concert without any help from anyone else, playing on a single instrument--a piano, say, which is a little orchestra in itself. Such a man is a little world in himself; and the effect produced by various instruments together, he produces single-handed, in the unity of his own consciousness. Like the piano, he has no place in a symphony; he is a soloist and performs by himself--in soli tude, it may be; or if in the company with other instruments, only as principal; or for setting the tone, as in singing.