Gnomic wisdom, however, is notoriously polychrome, and proverbs depend for their truth entirely on the occasion they are applied to. Almost every wise saying has an opposite one, no less wise, to balance it.

All beauties are to be honored, but only one embraced.

Reason in my philosophy is only a harmony among irrational impulses.

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

The theatre, for all its artifices, depicts life in a sense more truly than history, because the medium has a kindred movement to that of real life, though an artificial setting and form.

It is rash to intrude upon the piety of others: both the depth and the grace of it elude the stranger.

The arts must study their occasions; they must stand modestly aside until they can slip in fitly into the interstices of life.