The relative majesty of buildings depends more on the weight and vigour of their masses than any other tribute of their design.

Morality does not depend on religion.

To use books rightly, is to go to them for help; to appeal to them when our own knowledge and power fail; to be led by them into wider sight and purer conception than our own, and to receive from them the united sentence of the judges and councils of all time, against our solitary and unstable opinions.

I know few Christians so convinced of the splendor of the rooms in their Father's house, as to be happier when their friends are called to those mansions... Nor has the Church's ardent "desire to depart, and be with Christ," ever cured it of the singular habit of putting on mourning for every person summoned to such departure.

No good work whatever can be perfect, and the demand for perfection is always a sign of a misunderstanding of the ends of art.

Modern travelling is not travelling at all; it is merely being sent to a place, and very little different from becoming a parcel.

I believe the right question to ask, respecting all ornament, is simply this; was it done with enjoyment, was the carver happy while he was about it?