There is no greater stupidity or meanness than to take uniformity for an ideal.

We should have to abandon our vested illusions, our irrational religions and patriotisms.

Music is essentially useless, as life is; but both have an ideal extension which lends utility to its conditions.

What religion a man shall have is a historical accident, quite as much as what language he shall speak.

Beautiful things, when taste is formed, are obviously and unaccountably beautiful.

Skepticism is the chastity of the intellect...

The degree in which a poet's imagination dominates reality is, in the end, the exact measure of his importance and dignity.