Rings and jewels are not gifts, but apologies for gifts. The only gift is a portion of thyself. Thou must bleed for me. Therefore the poet brings his poem; the shepherd, his lamb; the farmer, corn; the miner, a stone; the painter, his picture; the girl, a handkerchief of her own sewing.

The hearing ear is always found close to the speaking tongue; and no genius can long or often utter anything which is not invited and gladly entertained by men around him.

Make your own Bible. Select and collect all the words and sentences that in all your readings have been to you like the blast of a trumpet.

And yet--it is not beauty that inspires the deepest passion. Beauty without grace is the hook without the bait. Beauty, without expression, tires.

The world is emblematic. Parts of speech are metaphors, because the whole of nature is a metaphor of the human mind.

For nonconformity the world will whip you with its displeasure.

Wherever there is power, there is age. Don't be deceived by dimples and curls. I tell you that babe is a thousand years old.