Art is a reality, not a definition; inasmuch as it approaches a reality, it approaches perfection, and inasmuch as it approaches a mere definition, it is imperfect and untrue.

When a man is no longer anxious to do better than well, he is done for.

One of the surest evidences of an elevated taste is the power of enjoying works of impassioned terrorism, in poetry, and painting. The man who can look at impassioned subjects of terror with a feeling of exultation may be certain he has an elevated taste.

Mistrusts sometimes come over one's mind of the justice of God. But let a real misery come again, and to whom do we fly? To whom do we instinctively and immediately look up?

How difficult it is to get men to believe that any other man can or does act from disinterestedness!

Temperance in everything is requisite for happiness.

Genius in poverty is never feared, because nature, though liberal in her gifts in one instance, is forgetful in another.