Finally, good sense is the body of poetic genius, fancy its drapery, motion its life, and imagination the soul that is everywhere and in each; and forms all into one graceful and intelligent whole.

Nothing great was ever achieved without enthusiasm. For what is enthusiasm but the oblivion and swallowing-up of self in an object dearer than self?

Every reform, however necessary, will by weak minds be carried to an excess, that itself will need reforming.

What if you slept? And what if, in your sleep, you went to heaven and there plucked a strange and beautiful flower? And what if,when you awoke,you had the flower in your hand? Ah, what then?

A man of maxims only is like a Cyclops with one eye, and that in the back of his head.

I must lay down the law as I understand it, and as I read it in books of authority.

Alone, Alone, all, all alone, Alone on a wide wide sea! And never saint took pity on My soul in agony