There is, in all great poets, a wisdom of humanity which is superior to any talents they exercise.

The cure for false theology is motherwit. Forget your books and traditions, and obey your moral perceptions at this hour.

Our debt to tradition through reading and conversation is so massive, our protest so rare and insignificant-and this commonly on the ground of other reading and hearing-that in large sense, one would say there is no pure originality. All minds quote. Old and new make the warp and woof of every moment. There is no thread that is not a twist of these two strands. By necessity, by proclivity, and by delight, we all quote. It is as difficult to appropriate the thoughts of others as it is to invent.

I find it a great and fatal difference whether I court the Muse, or the Muse courts me. That is the ugly disparity between age and youth.

Every day, a little sadder, a little madder. Will someone get me a ladder?

Nor count compartments of the floors, But mount to paradise By the stairway of surprise.

Deal in our privacy with the last honesty and truth.