It was a Roman who said it was sweet to die for one's country. The Greeks never said it was sweet to die for anything. They had no vital lies.

When we speak of beauty, we're speaking of something we're more or less indifferent to.

Poetry and preaching do not go well together; when the preacher mounts the pulpit the poet usually goes away.

Ages of faith and of unbelief are always said to mark the course of history.

There are few efforts more conducive to humility than that of the translator trying to communicate an incommunicable beauty. Yet, unless we do try, something unique and never surpassed will cease to exist except in the libraries of a few inquisitive book lovers.

The power of good is shown not by triumphantly conquering evil, but by continuing to resist evil while facing certain defeat.

Great art is the expression of a solution of the conflict between the demands of the world without and that within.