Commerce is so far from being beneficial to arts, or to empire, that it is destructive of both, as all their history shows, for the above reason of individual merit being its great hatred. Empires flourish till they become commercial, and then they are scattered abroad to the four winds.

Want of money and the distress of a thief can never be alleged as the cause of his thieving, for many honest people endure greater hardships with fortitude. We must therefore seek the cause elsewhere than in want of money, for that is the miser's passion, not the thief s.

And priests in black gowns were walking their rounds and binding with briars my joys and desires. (from 'The Garden of Love')

A musician, an artist, an architect: the man or woman who is not one of these is not a Christian.

How do you know but ev’ry Bird that cuts the airy way, Is an immense world of delight, clos’d by your senses five?

Thy friendship oft has made my heart to ache: do be my enemy for friendship's sake.

If others had not been foolish, we should be so.