...there is in life an element of elfin coincidence which people reckoning on the prosaic may perpetually miss. As it has been well expressed in the paradox of Poe, wisdom should reason on the unforeseen.

The poetry of art is in beholding the single tower; the poetry of nature in seeing the single tree; the poetry of love in following the single woman; the poetry of religion in worshipping the single star.

As regards moral courage, then, it is not so much that the public schools support it feebly, as that they suppress it firmly.

The cross cannot be defeated for it is defeat.

A man cannot deserve adventures; he cannot earn dragons and hippogriffs.

I need not pause to explain that crime is not a disease. It is criminology that is a disease.

The artistic temperament is a disease that affects amateurs. Artists of a large and wholesome vitality get rid of their art easily, as they breathe easily or perspire easily. But in artists of less force, the thing becomes a pressure, and produces a definite pain, which is called the artistic temperament.