Every book is a quotation; and every house is a quotation out of all forests, and mines, and stone quarries; and every man is a quotation from all his ancestors.

The art of conversation, or the qualification for a good companion, is a certain self-control, which now holds the subject, now lets it go, with a respect for the emergencies of the moment.

An artist spends himself like the crayon in his hand, till he is all gone.

The reliance on authority measures the decline of religion, the withdrawal of the soul.

People forget that it is the eye which makes the horizon, and the rounding mind's eye which makes this or that man a type or representative of humanity with the name of hero or saint.

Great thoughts ensure musical expression.

The line of beauty is the line of perfect economy.