You do not become a critic until it has been completely established to your own satisfaction that you cannot be a poet.

Fortune loves to give bedroom slippers to people with wooden legs, and gloves to those with no hands.

Yes, the work comes out more beautiful from a material that resists the process, verse, marble, onyx, or enamel.

Yes I have loved, as no one on earth ever loved, with an insensate and furious love, so violent that I wonder it did not break my heart

Sometimes he will sit on the carpet in front of you, looking at you with eyes so melting, so caressing and so human, that they almost frighten you, for it is impossible to believe that a soul is not there.

The pleasure in traveling consists of the obstacles, the fatigue, and even the danger. What charm can anyone find in an excursion when he is always sure of reaching his destination, of having horses ready waiting for him, a soft bed, an excellent supper, and all the eases and comfort he can enjoy in his own home! One of the great misfortunes of modern life is the want of any sudden surprise, and the absence of all adventure. Everything is so well arranged.

The word poet literally means maker: anything which is not well made doesn't exist.