There must ... be in our very nature a very radical and widespread tendency to observe beauty, and to value it. No account of the principles of the mind can be at all adequate that passes over so conspicuous a faculty.

All language is rhetorical, and even the senses are poets.

We crave support in vanity, as we do in religion, and never forgive contradictions in that sphere.

Wisdom comes by disillusionment.

It is a great bond to dislike the same things.

Well-bred instinct meets reason halfway

A great man need not be virtuous, nor his opinions right, but he must have a firm mind, a distinctive luminous character.