Either the human being must suffer and struggle as the price of a more searching vision, or his gaze must be shallow and without intellectual revelation.

But my way of writing is rather to think aloud, and follow my own humours, than much to consider who is listening to me; and, if I stop to consider what is proper to be said to this or that person, I shall soon come to doubt whether any part at all is proper.

Reserve is the truest expression of respect towards those who are its objects.

Enough if every age produce two or three critics of this esoteric class, with here and there a reader to understand them.

The mere understanding, however useful and indispensable, is the meanest faculty in the human mind and the most to be distrusted.

Either the human being must suffer and struggle as the price of a more searching vision, or his gaze must be shallow and without intellectual revelation.

It is most absurdly said, in popular language, of any man, that he is disguised in liquor; for, on the contrary, most men are disguised by sobriety.