The essence of poetry is will and passion.

Life is the art of being well deceived; and in order that the deception may succeed it must be habitual and uninterrupted.

I hate to be near the sea, and to hear it roaring and raging like a wild beast in its den. It puts me in mind of the everlasting efforts of the human mind, struggling to be free, and ending just where it began.

Sincerity has to do with the connexion between our words and thoughts, and not between our beliefs and actions.

It is not the passion of a mind struggling with misfortune, or the hopelessness of its desires, but of a mind preying on itself, and disgusted with, or indifferent to all other things.

There are few things in which we deceive ourselves more than in the esteem we profess to entertain for our firends. It is little better than a piece of quackery. The truth is, we think of them as we please, that is, as they please or displease us.

Those who are fond of setting things to rights, have no great objection to seeing them wrong.