Some men so dislike the dust kicked up by the generation they belong to, that, being unable to pass, they lag behind it.

The feeling is often the deeper truth, the opinion the more superficial one.

Curiosity is little more than another name for Hope.

Nature is mighty. Art is mighty. Artifice is weak. For nature is the work of a mightier power than man. Art is the work of man under the guidance and inspiration of a mightier power. Artifice is the work of mere man, in the imbecility of his mimic understanding.

The body too has its rights; and it will have them: they cannot be trampled on without peril. The body ought to be the soul's best friend. Many good men however have neglected to make it such: so it has become a fiend and has plagued them.

There is as much difference between good poetry and fine verses, as between the smell of a flower-garden and of a perfumer's shop.

They who boast of their tolerance merely give others leave to be as careless about religion as they are themselves. A walrus might as well pride itself on its endurance of cold.