Where virtue is, sensibility is the ornament and becoming attire of virtue. On certain occasions it may almost be said to become virtue. But sensibility and all the amiable qualities may likewise become, and too often have become, the panders of vice and the instruments of seduction.

Creation rather than painting, or if painting, yet such, and with such co-presence of the whole picture flash'd at once upon the eye, as the sun paints in a camera obscura. (Describing his poetic ideal, 1817)

Falsehood is fire in stubble; it likewise turns all the light stuff around it into its own substance for a moment, one crackling blazing moment, and then dies; and all its converts are scattered in the wind, without place or evidence of their existence, as viewless as the wind which scatters them.

A man's desire is for the woman, but the woman's desire is rarely other than for the desire of the man.

The first duty of a wise advocate is to convince his opponents that he understands their arguments, and sympathies with their just feelings.

The book of Job is pure Arab poetry of the highest and most antique cast.

To admire on principle is the only way to imitate without loss of originality.