No young man ever thinks he shall die.

Without the aid of prejudice and custom, I should not be able to find my way across the room.

Painting gives the object itself; poetry what it implies. Painting embodies what a thing contains in itself; poetry suggests what exists out of it, in any manner connected with it.

No man would, I think, exchange his existence with any other man, however fortunate. We had as lief not be, as not be ourselves.

Indolence is a delightful but distressing state; we must be doing something to be happy. Action is no less necessary than thought to the instinctive tendencies of the human frame.

I hate anything that occupies more space than it is worth... I hate to see a parcel of big words without anything in them.

There is no one thoroughly despicable. We cannot descend much lower than an idiot; and an idiot has some advantages over a wise man.