No man profiteth but by the loss of others.

I am one of those who hold that poetry is never so blithe as in a wanton and irregular subject.

Tis well for old age that it is always accompanied with want of perception, ignorance, and a facility of being deceived. For should we see how we are used and would not acquiesce, what would become of us?

The perpetual work of your life is but to lay the foundation of death.

We need to interpret interpretations more than to interpret things.

I do not correct my first imaginings by my second--well, yes, perhaps a word or so, but only to vary, not to delete. I want to represent the course of my humors and I want people to see each part at its birth.

To make judgements about great and lofty things, a soul of the same stature is needed; otherwise we ascribe to them that vice which is our own.