Wherever men are noble, they love bright colour; and wherever they can live healthily, bright colour is given them—in sky, sea, flowers, and living creatures.

A forest of all manner of trees is poor, if not disagreeable, in effect; a mass of one species of tree is sublime.

You can only possess beauty through understanding it.

If only the Geologists would let me alone, I could do very well, but those dreadful Hammers! I hear the clink of them at the end of every cadence of the Bible verses.

All that is good in art is the expression of one soul talking to another, and is precious according to the greatness of the soul that utters it.

He is the greatest artist who has embodied, in the sum of his works, the greatest number of the greatest ideas.

In mortals there is a care for trifles which proceeds from love and conscience, and is most holy; and a care for trifles which comes of idleness and frivolity, and is most base. And so, also, there is a gravity proceeding from thought, which is most noble; and a gravity proceeding from dulness and mere incapability of enjoyment, which is most base.