As long as there is satire, the poet is, as it were, particeps criminis.

You will pardon some obscurities, for there are more secrets in my trade than in most men's, and yet not voluntarily kept, but inseparable from its very nature. I would gladly tell all that I know about it, and never paint "No Admittance" on my gate.

The rich man is always sold to the institution which makes him rich. Absolutely speaking, the more money, the less virtue.

How wholesome winter is, seen far or near; how good, above all mere sentimental, warm-blooded, short-lived, soft-hearted, moral goodness, commonly so called. Give me the goodness which has forgotten its own deeds,--which God has seen to be good, and let be.

Any nobleness begins at once to refine a man's features, any meanness or sensuality to imbrute them.

Bribed with a little sunlight and a few prismatic tints, we bless our Maker, and stave off his wrath with hymns.

How vain it is to sit down to write when you have not stood up to live.