Shakespeare is, essentially, the emanation of the Renaissance. The overflow of his fame on the Continent in later years was but the sequel of the flood of the Renaissance in Western Europe. He was the child of that great movement, and marks its height as it penetrated the North with civilization.

The poet craves emotion, and feeds the fire that consumes him, and only under this condition is he baptized with creative power.

The critic is genius at one remove; he is not unlike an actor on the stage, and incarnates in his mind, as the actor embodies in his person, another's work; only thus does he understand art, realize it, know it; and having arrived at this, his task is done.

To feel that one has a place in life solves half the problem of contentment.

Defeat is not the worst of failures. Not to have tried is the true failure.

Always begin anew with the day, just as nature does. It is one of the sensible things that nature does.

It is not meant that the artist, in arriving at truth, must follow the way of the scientist, or, in stating it, the way of the philosopher.