The most noble criticism is that in which the critic is not the antagonist so much as the rival of the author.
Whenever we would prepare the mind by a forcible appeal, an opening quotation is a symphony preluding on the chords whose tones we are about to harmonize.
Fortune has rarely condescended to be the companion of genius.
The act of contemplation then creates the thing created.
One may quote till one compiles.
The golden hour of invention must terminate like other hours, and when the man of genius returns to the cares, the duties, the vexations, and the amusements of life, his companions behold him as one of themselves - the creature of habits and infirmities.