He who, in an enlightened and literary society, aspires to be a great poet, must first become a little child.

As civilization advances, poetry almost necessarily declines.

Logicians may reason about abstractions. But the great mass of men must have images. The strong tendency of the multitude in all ages and nations to idolatry can be explained on no other principle.

With the dead there is no rivalry, with the dead there is no change.

He was a rake among scholars, and a scholar among rakes.

In employing fiction to make truth clear and goodness attractive, we are only following the example which every Christian ought to propose to himself.

No war ought ever to be undertaken but under circumstances which render all intercourse of courtesy between the combatants impossible. It is a bad thing that men should hate each other; but it is far worse that they should contract the habit of cutting one another's throats without hatred. War is never lenient but where it is wanton; when men are compelled to fight in self-defence, they must hate and avenge: this may be bad; but it is human nature.