Our hands we open of our own free will, and the good flies, which we can never recall.

No doubt you are right... there would be far less suffering amongst mankind if men... did not employ their imaginations so assiduously in recalling the memory of past sorrow, instead of bearing their present lot with equanimity.

Moral epochs have their course as well as the seasons. We can no more hold them fast than we can hold sun, moon, and stars. Our faults perpetually return upon us; and herein lies the subtlest difficulty of self-knowledge.

At bottom, no real object is unpoetical, if the poet knows how to use it properly.

The greatest thing in this world is not so much where we stand as in what direction we are moving.

We gladly put antiquity above our age but not posterity. Only a father doesn't begrudge his son's talent.

Art is a severe business; most serious when employed in grand and sacred objects. The artist stands higher than art, higher than the object. He uses art for his purposes, and deals with the object after his own fashion.