Writing every day is a way of keeping the engine running, and then something good may come out of it.

That meddling in other people's affairs...formerly conducted by the most discreet intrigue is now openly advocated under the name of intervention.

That is the worst moment, when you feel you have lost / The desires for all that was most desirable, / Before you are contented with what you can desire; / Before you know what is left to be desired; / And you go on wishing that you could desire / What desire has left behind.

From a purely external point of view there is no will; and to find will in any phenomenon requires a certain empathy; we observe aman's actions and place ourselves partly but not wholly in his position; or we act, and place ourselves partly in the position of an outsider.

To do the useful thing, to say the courageous thing, to contemplate the beautiful thing: that is enough for one man's life.

Most of the trouble in the world is caused by people wanting to be important.

Poetry is not a turning loose of emotion, but an escape from emotion.