A man may be buoyed up by the efflation of his wild desires to brave any imaginable peril; but he cannot calmly see one he loves braving the same peril; simply because he cannot feel within turn that which prompts another. He sees the danger, and feels not the power that is to overcome it.

In its happiest efforts, translation is but approximation, and its efforts are not often happy. A translation may be good as translation, but it cannot be an adequate reproduction of the original.

Books have become our dearest companions, yielding exquisite delights and inspiring lofty aims.

Imagination is not the exclusive appanage of artists, but belongs in varying degrees to all men.

Remember that every drop of rain that falls bears into the bosom of the earth a quality of beautiful fertility.

The real people of genius were resolute workers not idle dreamers.

Bad acting, like bad writing, has a remarkable uniformity, whether seen on the French, German, or English stages; it all seems modeled after two or three types, and those the least like types of good acting. The fault generally lies less in the bad imitation of a good model, than in the successful imitation of a bad model.