To lose somebody is to lose not only their person but all those modes and manifestations into which their person has flowed outwards; so that in losing a beloved one may find so many things, pictures, poems, melodies, places lost too: Dante, Avignon, a song of Shakespeare's, the Cornish sea.

All artists dream of a silence which they must enter, as some creatures return to the sea to spawn.

... when caught unawares I usually tell the truth, and what's duller than that?

We must live by the light of our own self-satisfaction, through that secret vital busy inwardness which is even more remarkable than our reason.

We are such inward secret creatures, that inwardness is the most amazing thing about us, even more amazing than our reason.

What a test that is: more than devotion, admiration, passion. If you long and long for someone’s company you love them.

Philosophy! Empty thinking by ignorant conceited men who think they can digest without eating!