In every artist there is a touch of audacity without which no talent is conceivable.

Those who make use of devotion as a means and end generally are hypocrites.

Beauty is a primeval phenomenon, which itself never makes its appearance, but the reflection of which is visible in a thousand different utterances of the creative mind, and is as various as nature herself.

It is a great error to take oneself for more than one is, or for less than one is worth.

Forget not that the man who cannot enjoy his own natural gifts in silence, and find his reward in the exercise of them, will generally find himself badly off.

I hate all bungling as I do sin, but particularly bungling in politics, which leads to the misery and ruin of many thousands and millions of people.

Publishers are all cohorts of the devil; there must be a special hell for them somewhere.