An artist chooses his subjects: that is the way he praises.

The usual false conclusions of mankind are these: a thing exists, therefore it has a right to exist.

Remain true to the earth.

The small force that it takes to launch a boat into the stream should not be confused with the force of the stream that carries it along: but this confusion appears in nearly all biographies.

It is the music in our conscience, the dance in our spirit, to which Puritan litanies, moral sermons, and goody goodness won’t chime.

Not contentment, but more power; not peace at any price, but war; not virtue, but efficiency (virtue in the Renaissance sense, virtu , virtue free of moral acid).

And when your soul becometh great, then doth it become haughty, and in your sublimity there is wickedness.