I now require this of all pictures, that they domesticate me, not that they dazzle me. Pictures must not be too picturesque. Nothing astonishes men so much as common-sense and plain dealing. All great actions have been simple, and all great pictures are.

Finish each day before you begin the next, and interpose a solid wall of sleep between the two. This you cannot do without temperance.

As long as any man exists, there is some need of him.

We are of different opinions at different hours, but we always may be said to be at heart on the side of truth.

Only an inventor knows how to borrow, and every man is or should be an inventor.

If the red slayer think he slays, Or if the slain think he is slain, They know not well the subtle ways, I keep and pass and turn again.

Thou art to me a delicious torment.