The aim of flattery is to soothe and encourage us by assuring us of the truth of an opinion we have already formed about ourselves.

The reason why Matthew Arnold, to my feeling, fails entirely as a poet (though no doubt his ideas were good - at least, I am told they were) is that he had no sense of touch whatsoever. Nothing made any impression on his skin. He could feel neither the shape nor the texture of a poem with his hands.

Poetry ennobles the heart and the eyes, and unveils the meaning of all things upon which the heart and the eyes dwell. It discovers the secret rays of the universe, and restores to us forgotten paradises.

the arts are life accelerated and concentrated.

A great many people now reading and writing would be better employed keeping rabbits.

I may say that I think greed about poetry is the only permissible greed - it is, indeed, unavoidable.

If certain critics and poetasters had their way, 'Ordinary Piety' and its child, Dullness, would be the masters of poetry.