Modern science gives lectures on botany, to show there is no such thing as a flower; on humanity, to show there is no such thing as a man; and on theology, to show there is no such thing as a God. No such thing as a man, but only a mechanism, No such thing as a God, but only a series of forces.

Quality is never an accident. It is always the result of intelligent effort.

The greatest glory of a building is not in its stones, nor in its gold. Its glory is in its Age, and in that deep sense of voicefulness, of stern watching, of mysterious sympathy... which we feel in walls that have long been washed by the passing waves of humanity.

Civilization is the making of civil persons.

Ship of the line is the most honourable thing that man, as a gregarious animal, has ever produced.

All that we call ideal in Greek or any other art, because to us it is false and visionary, was, to the makers of it, true and existent.

Milton saw not, and Beethoven heard not, but the sense of beauty was upon them, and they fain must speak.