There is no feeling, perhaps, except the extremes of fear and grief, that does not find relief in music,--that does not make a man sing or play the better.

I am not resigned: I am not sure life is long enough to learn that lesson.

We have all got to exert ourselves a little to keep sane, and call things by the same names as other people call them by.

If Art does not enlarge men's sympathies, it does nothing morally.

She was no longer struggling against the perception of facts, but adjusting herself to their clearest perception.

You know nothing about Hope, that immortal, delicious maiden forever courted forever propitious, whom fools have called deceitful, as if it were Hope that carried the cup of disappointment, whereas it is her deadly enemy, Certainty, whom she only es

Here undoubtedly lies the chief poetic energy: - in the force of imagination that pierces or exalts the solid fact, instead of floating among cloud-pictures.