There speaks the man of truly noble ways, Who will not listen to the words of praise. In modesty averse, and with deaf ears, He acts as though the others were his peers.

Shakespeare is dangerous to young poets; they cannot but reproduce him, while they fancy that they produce themselves.

Be above it! Make the world serve your purpose, but do not serve it.

Let no one be like another, yet everyone like the highest. How is this done? Be each one perfect in himself.

nothing puts me so completely out of patience as the utterance of a wretched commonplace when I am talking from my inmost heart.

There are but few who have ideas and are, at the same time, capable of action. Ideas enlarge but stymie, action enlivens but confines.

What you have inherited from your forefathers, it takes work to make it your own.