The critic ... should be not merely a poet, not merely a philosopher, not merely an observer, but tempered of all three.

Would that the simple maxim, that honesty is the best policy, might be laid to heart; that a sense of the true aim of life might elevate the tone of politics and trade till public and private honor become identical.

I stand in the sunny noon of life. Objects no longer glitter in the dews of morning, neither are yet softened by the shadows of evening.

It is a vulgar error that love, a love, to woman is her whole existence; she is born for Truth and Love in their universal energy

The critic is beneath the maker, but is his needed friend. The critic is not a base caviler, but the younger brother of genius. Next to invention is the power of interpreting invention; next to beauty the power of appreciating beauty. And of making others appreciate it.

Genius will live and thrive without training, but it does not the less reward the watering pot and the pruning knife.

While any one is base, none can be entirely free and noble.