Let my heart be still a moment and this mystery explore.

I am above the weakness of seeking to establish a sequence of cause and effect, between the disaster and the atrocity.

Were I called on to define, very briefly, the term Art, I should call it 'the reproduction of what the Senses perceive in Nature through the veil of the soul.' The mere imitation, however accurate, of what is in Nature, entitles no man to the sacred name of 'Artist.'

It is impossible to say how first the idea entered my brain, but, once conceived, it haunted me day and night.

The object, Truth, or the satisfaction of the intellect, and the object, Passion, or the excitement of the heart, are, although attainable, to a certain extent, in poetry, far more readily attainable in prose.

In me didst thou exist-and, in my death, see by this image, which is thine own, how utterly thou hast murdered thyself.

Perversity is the human thirst for self-torture.