A man must always study, but he must not always go to school: what a contemptible thing is an old abecedarian!

Let us permit nature to have her way. She understands her business better than we do.

We have more poets than judges and interpreters of poetry. It is easier to write an indifferent poem than to understand a good one. There is, indeed, a certain low and moderate sort of poetry, that a man may well enough judge by certain rules of art; but the true, supreme, and divine poesy is equally above all rules and reason. And whoever discerns the beauty of it with the most assured and most steady sight sees no more than the quick reflection of a flash of lightning.

Love to his soul gave eyes; he knew things are not as they seem. The dream is his real life; the world around him is the dream.

The shortest way to arrive at glory would be to do that for conscience which we do for glory.

God defend me from myself.

In truth, knowledge is a great and very useful quality; those who despise it give evidence enough of their stupidity. Yet I do not set its value at that extreme measure that some attribute to it.