We should all live as if we were never going to die, for it is the deaths of our friends that hurt us, not our own.

One of the marks of a great poet is that he creates his own family of words and teaches them to live together in harmony and to help one another.

Middle age snuffs out more talent than even wars or sudden death.

We are closer to the ants than to the butterflies. Very few people can endure much leisure.

Everyone alters and is altered by everyone else. We are all the time taking in portions of one another or else reacting against them, and by these involuntary acquisitions and repulsions modifying our natures.

We should all live as if we were never going to die, for it is the deaths of our friends that hurt us, not our own.

Words are as recalcitrant as circus animals, and the unskilled trainer can crack his whip at them in vain.