The worst thing about some men is that when they are not drunk they are sober.

The labor of the alchemists, who were called artist in their day, is a befitting comparison for a deliberate change of style.

The Irishman sustains himself during brief periods of joy by the knowledge that tragedy is just around the corner.

The best lack all conviction, while the worst are full of passionate intensity.

Though leaves are many, the root is one; Through all the lying days of my youth I swayed my leaves and flowers in the sun Now I may wither into the truth.

We cannot doubt that barbaric people receive such influences more visibly and obviously, and in all likelihood more easily and fully than we do, for our life in cities, which deafens or kills the passive meditative life, and our education that enlarges the separated, self-moving mind, have made our souls less sensitive.

Things thought too long can be no longer thought, For beauty dies of beauty, worth of worth, And ancient lineaments are blotted out.