Literature is at once the cause and the effect of social progress.

Philosophy and Art both render the invisible visible by imagination.

Personal experience is the basis of all real literature.

Insincerity is always weakness; sincerity even in error is strength.

Character is built out of circumstances. From exactly the same materials, one man builds palaces, while another builds hovels.

A man may be variously accomplished, and yet be a feeble poet.

It is unhappily true that much insincere Literature and Art, executed solely with a view to effect, does succeed by deceiving the public.