The primary function of poetry, as of all the arts, is to make us more aware of ourselves and the world around us. I do not know if such increased awareness makes us more moral or more efficient. I hope not. I think it makes us more human, and I am quite certain it makes us more difficult to deceive.

No good opera plot can be sensible, for people do not sing when they are feeling sensible.

Composing mortals with immortal fire.

The commonest ivory tower is that of the average man, the state of passivity towards experience.

Criticism should be a casual conversation.

Ideally, government is the means by which all the individual wills are assured complete freedom of moral choice and at the same time prevented from ever clashing.

It is nonsense to speak of 'higher' and 'lower' pleasures. To a hungry man it is, rightly, more important that he eat than that he philosophize.