Good writing is a kind of skating which carries off the performer where he would not go, and is only right admirable when to all its beauty and speed a subserviency to the will, like that of walking, is added.

The vanishing, volatile froth of the present which any shadow will alter, any thought blow away, any event annihilate, is every moment converted into the adamantine.

It is the fine souls who serve us, and not what is called fine society. Fine society is only a self-protection against the vulgarities of the street and the tavern.

Curiosity is lying in wait for every secret.

Every man is wanted, and no man is wanted much.

Whilst we want cities as the centres where the best things are found, cities degrade us by magnifying trifles.

The one thing in the world, of value, is the active soul