... A power of obtaining veracity in the representation of material and tangible things, which, within certain limits and conditions, is unimpeachable, has now been placed in the hands of all men, almost without labour. (1853)

Depend upon it, the first universal characteristic of all great art is Tenderness, as the second is Truth.

There is no such thing as bad weather, only different kinds of good weather.

All are to be men of genius in their degree,--rivulets or rivers, it does not matter, so that the souls be clear and pure; not dead walls encompassing dead heaps of things, known and numbered, but running waters in the sweet wilderness of things unnumbered and unknown, conscious only of the living banks, on which they partly refresh and partly reflect the flowers, and so pass on.

Your honesty is not to be based either on religion or policy. Both your religion and policy must be based on it. Your honesty must be based, as the sun is, in vacant heaven; poised, as the lights in the firmament, which have rule over the day and over the night.

No one can become rich by the efforts of only their toil, but only by the discovery of some method of taxing the labor of others.

The secret of language is the secret of sympathy, and its full charm is possible only to the gentle