Old gold has a civilizing virtue which new gold must grow old to be capable of secreting.

When I was a beggarly boy, And lived in a cellar damp, I had not a friend nor a toy, But I had Aladdin's lamp.

The secret of force in writing lies not so much in the pedigree of nouns and adjectives and verbs, as in having something that you believe in to say, and making the parts of speech vividly conscious of it.

We look at death through the cheap-glazed windows of the flesh, and believe him the monster which the flawed and cracked glass represents him.

Greatly begin. Though thou have time, but for a line, be that sublime. Not failure, but low aim is crime.

Old events have modern meanings; only that survives of past history which finds kindred in all hearts and lives.

What a man pays for bread and butter is worth its market value, and no more. What he pays for love's sake is gold indeed, which has a lure for angels' eyes, and rings well upon God's touchstone.