Shakespeare has been praised in English more than anything mortal except poetry itself. Fame exhausts thought in his eulogy.

A nation's poets are its true owners; and by the stroke of the pen they convey the title-deeds of its real possessions to strangers and aliens.

I am quite sure that no friendship yields its true pleasure and nobility of nature without frequent communication, sympathy and service.

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

You must find the ideas that have some promise in them... It is not enough to just have ideas.

If the aristocracy of the whole white race is so to melt in a world of the colored races of the Earth, I for one should only rejoice in such a divine triumph of the sacrificial idea in history; for it would mean the humanization of mankind.

The growth of art seems to be in cycles, and often its vigorous lifetime is restricted to a century or two. The periods of distinctive drama, Greek, English, Spanish, fall within such a limit; the schools of painting and sculpture likewise; and, in poetry, the Victorian age or the school of Pope will serve as examples.