To sentence a man of true genius, to the drudgery of a school is to put a racehorse on a treadmill.

Poetry is not the proper antithesis to prose, but to science. Poetry is opposed to science, and prose to meter. The proper and immediate object of science is the acquirement, or communication of truth; the proper and immediate object of poetry is the communication of immediate pleasure.

Language is the armory of the human mind, and at once contains the trophies of its past and the weapons of its future conquests.

Our own heart, and not other men's opinion, forms our true honor.

May all the stars hang bright above her dwelling, Silent as though they watched the sleeping earth!

That only can with propriety be styled refinement which, by strengthening the intellect, purifies the manners.

Nature never deserts the wise and pure; no plot so narrow, be but nature there; no waste so vacant, but may well employ each faculty of sense, and keep the heart awake to love and beauty.