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

Art like life, should be free, since both are experimental.

There is wisdom in turning as often as possible from the familiar to the unfamiliar: it keeps the mind nimble, it kills prejudice, and it fosters humor.

The passions grafted on wounded pride are the most inveterate; they are green and vigorous in old age.

The God to whom depth in philosophy bring back men's minds is far from being the same from whom a little philosophy estranges them

Intelligence is quickness in seeing things as they are.

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.