It seems to be a law of nature that no man, unless he has some obvious physical deformity, ever is loth to sit for his portrait.

I was a modest, good-humoured boy. It is Oxford that has made me insufferable.

Beauty and the lust for learning have yet to be allied.

Zuleika, on a desert island, would have spent most of her time in looking for a man's footprint.

The critic who justly admires all kinds of things simultaneously cannot love any one of them.

Reverence is a good thing, and part of its value is that the more we revere a man, the more sharply are we struck by anything in him (and there is always much) that is incongruous with his greatness.

A quiet city is a contradiction in terms. It is a thing uncanny, spectral.