If you modestly enjoy your fame you are not unworthy to rank with the holy.

Man can find no better retreat from the world than art, and man can find no stronger link with the world than art.

Every author in some way portrays himself in his works, even if it be against his will.

I had toward the poetic art a peculiar relation which was only practical after I had cherished in my mind for a long time a subject which possessed me, a model which inspired me, a predecessor who attracted me, until at length, after I had molded it

Thus one can observe that those who proclaim piety as their goal and purpose usually turn into hypocrites.

If we take people only as they are, then we make them worse; if we treat them as if they were what they should be, then we bring them to where they can be brought.

True works of art are a manifestation of the higher laws of nature.