There is some reason to believe that when a man does not write his poetry it escapes by other vents through him, instead of the one vent of writing; clings to his form and manners, whilst poets have often nothing poetical about them except their verses.

I find that the Americans have no passions, they have appetites.

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.

As to methods, there may be a million and then some, but principles are few. The man who grasps principles can successfully select his own methods.

Art is not to be found by touring to Egypt, China, or Peru; if you cannot find it at your own door, you will never find it.

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.

A man makes inferiors his superiors by heat; self-control is the rule.