In his very rejection of art Walt Whitman is an artist. He tried to produce a certain effect by certain means and he succeeded....He stands apart, and the chief value of his work is in its prophecy, not in its performance. He has begun a prelude to larger themes. He is the herald to a new era. As a man he is the precursor of a fresh type. He is a factor in the heroic and spiritual evolution of the human being. If Poetry has passed him by, Philosophy will take note of him.

To be good, according to the vulgar standard of goodness, is obviously quite easy. It merely requires a certain amount of sordid terror, a certain lack of imaginative thought, and a certain low passion for middle-class respectability.

Mere color, unspoiled by meaning, and unallied with definite form, can speak to the soul in a thousand different ways.

God's eternal laws are kind-and break the heart of stone.

We live in an age that reads too much to be wise, and that thinks too much to be beautiful.

A man who marries without knowing Bunbury has a very tedious time of it.

Now and then it is a joy to have one's table red with wine and roses.