Furniture! Thank God, I can sit and I can stand without the aid of a furniture warehouse.

Seeds, there are seeds enough which need only be stirred in with the soil where they lie, by an inspired voice or pen, to bear fruit of a divine flavor.

The news we hear, for the most part, is not news to our genius. It is the stalest repetition.

The monster is never just there where we think he is. What is truly monstrous is our cowardice and sloth.

The man of genius knows what he is aiming at; nobody else knows. And he alone knows when something comes between him and his object. In the course of generations, however, men will excuse you for not doing as they do, if you will bring enough to pass in your own way.

Nature puts no question and answers none which we mortals ask. She has long ago taken her resolution.

Yet poetry, though the last and finest result, is a natural fruit. As naturally as the oak bears an acorn, and the vine a gourd, man bears a poem, either spoken or done. It is the chief and most memorable success, for history is but a prose narrative of poetic deeds.