The truth properly means the sum of all true propositions, what omniscience would assert, the whole ideal system of qualities andrelations which the world has exemplified or will exemplify. The truth is all things seen under the form of eternity.

Theory helps us to bear our ignorance of facts.

The world is not respectable; it is mortal, tormented, confused, deluded forever; but it is shot through with beauty, with love, with glints of courage and laughter; and in these, the spirit blooms timidly, and struggles to the light amid the thorns.

Life is not a spectacle or a feast; it is a predicament.

Old places and old persons in their turn, when spirit dwells in them, have an intrinsic vitality of which youth is incapable, precisely, the balance and wisdom that come from long perspectives and broad foundations

Culture is on the horns of this dilemma: if profound and noble it must remain rare, if common it must become mean.

For Shakespeare, in the matter of religion, the choice lay between Christianity and nothing. He chose nothing.