Genius detects through the fly, through the caterpillar, through the grub, through the egg, the constant individual; through countless individuals the fixed species; through many species the genus; through all genera the steadfast type; through all the kingdoms of organized life the eternal unity. Nature is a mutable cloud which is always and never the same.

Lovers should guard their strangeness. If they forgive too much, all slides into confusion and meanness.

A poem is made up of thoughts, each of which filled the whole sky of the poet in its turn.

Character wants room; must not be crowded on by persons, nor be judged from glimpses got in the press of affairs, or on few occasions. It needs perspective, as a great building.

Tis a rule of manners to avoid exaggeration.

A cultivated man, wise to know and bold to perform, is the end to which nature works.

'Well,' said Red Jacket [to someone complaining that he had not enough time], 'I suppose you have all there is.'