The word-coining genius, as if thought plunged into a sea of words and came up dripping.

The mind must be allowed to settle undisturbed over the object in order to secrete the pearl.

Whatever may be their use in civilized societies, mirrors are essential to all violent and heroic action.

I am writing to a rhythm and not to a plot.

. . . to walk alone in London is the greatest rest.

Few people ask from books what books can give us. Most commonly we come to books with blurred and divided minds, asking of fiction that it shall be true, of poetry that it shall be false, of biography that it shall be flattering, of history that it shall enforce our own prejudices. If we could banish all such preconceptions when we read, that would be an admirable beginning.

The English tourist in American literature wants above all things something different from what he has at home. For this reason the one American writer whom the English whole-heartedly admire is Walt Whitman. There, you will hear them say, is the real American undisguised. In the whole of English literature there is no figure which resembles his - among all our poetry none in the least comparable to Leaves of Grass