One is always more vexed at losing a game of any sort by a single hole or ace, than if one has never had a chance of winning it.

To be forward to praise others implies either great eminence, that can afford to, part with applause; or great quickness of discernment, with confidence in our own judgments; or great sincerity and love of truth, getting the better of our self-love.

We often forget our dreams so speedily: if we cannot catch them as they are passing out at the door, we never set eyes on them again.

To get others to come into our ways of thinking, we must go over to theirs; and it is necessary to follow, in order to lead.

What I mean by living to one's self is living in the world, as in it, not of it.

The poetical impression of any object is that uneasy, exquisite sense of beauty or power that cannot be contained within itself; that is impatient of all limit; that (as flame bends to flame) strives to link itself to some other image of kindred beauty or grandeur; to enshrine itself, as it were, in the highest forms of fancy, and to relieve the aching sense of pleasure by expressing it in the boldest manner.

To-day kings, to-marrow beggars, it is only when they are themselves that they are nothing.