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.

I believe that ideal character in its perfection is potentially in every man who is born into the world.

Education has really only one basic factor: one must want it.

"Old times" never come back and I suppose it's just as well. What comes back is a new morning every day in the year, and that's better.

To realize life in the abstract as noble or beautiful or humane, to set it forth so with radiance upon it, that is civilization in the arts. Shakespeare is the chief modern example of this supreme faculty of mankind.

Who of English speech, bred to the traditions of his race, does not recognize Hamlet in his 'inky cloak' at a glance? Not to know him would argue one's self untaught in the chief glories of his language.

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