The sea with an end can be Greek or Roman: the endless sea is Portuguese.

My soul's the present shadow of a presence gone.

A great emotion is too selfish ; it takes into itself all the blood of the spirit, and the congestion leaves the hands too cold to write. Three sorts of emotion produce great poetry - strong but quick emotions, seized upon for art as soon as they have passed, but not before they have passed ; strong and deep emotions in their remembrance along time after ; and false emotions, that is to say, emotions felt in the intellect. Not insincerity, but a translated sincerity, is the basis of all art.

I look for myself but find no one. I belong to the chrysanthemum hour of bright flowers placed in tall vases. I should make an ornament of my soul.

I am tired of myself in every way. All things, deep down to the secret of their roots, are stained by the color of my weariness.

The unnatural and the strange have a perfume of their own

To choose ways of not acting was ever the concern and scruple of my life.