We should always endeavor to wonder at the permanent thing, not at the mere exception. We should be startled by the sun, and not by the eclipse. We should wonder less at the earthquake, and wonder more at the earth.

Pessimism is not in being tired of evil but in being tired of good. Despair does not lie in being weary of suffering, but in being weary of joy. It is when for some reason or other good things in a society no longer work that the society begins to decline; when its food does not feed, when its cures do not cure, when its blessings refuse to bless.

Liberty is the very last idea that seems to occur to anybody, in considering any political or social proposal. It is only necessary for anybody for any reason to allege any evidence of any evil in any human practice, for people instantly to suggest that the practice should be suppressed by the police.

The mind that finds its way to wild places is the poet's; but the mind that never finds its way back is the lunatic's.

The central idea of poetry is the idea of guessing right, like a child.

The repetition in Nature may not be a mere recurrence; it may be a theatrical encore.

There is a great deal of difference between an eager man who wants to read a book and the tired man who wants a book to read.