"The principle of the Gothic architecture is infinity made imaginable."

"What if you slept And what if In your sleep You dreamed And what if In your dream You went to heaven And there plucked a strange and beautiful flower And what if When you awoke You had that flower in you hand Ah, what then?"

"A man may devote himself to death and destruction to save a nation; but no nation will devote itself to death and destruction to save mankind."

"Greatness and goodness are not means, but ends."

"As I live and am a man, this is an unexaggerated tale - my dreams become the substances of my life."

"Readers may be divided into four classes: I. Sponges, who absorb all they read, and return it nearly in the same state, only a little dirtied. II. Sand-glasses, who retain nothing, and are content to get through a book for the sake of getting through the time. III. Strain-bags, who retain merely the dregs of what they read. IV. Mogul diamonds, equally rare and valuable, who profit by what they read, and enable others to profit by it also."

"The many men, so beautiful!And they all dead did lie:And a thousand thousand slimy thingsLived on; and so did I."

"Then all the charm Is broken - all that phantom-world so fair Vanishes, and a thousand circlets spread, And each mis-shape the other."

"To most men experience is like the stern lights of a ship, which illuminate only the track it has passed."

"I have often thought what a melancholy world this would be without children, and what an inhuman world without the aged."

"He who begins by loving Christianity more than Truth, will proceed by loving his sect or church better than Christianity, and end in loving himself better than all."

"Our own heart, and not other men's opinions form our true honor."

"A man's as old as he's feeling. A woman as old as she looks."

"No man does anything from a single motive."

"Alas! they had been friends in youth; but whispering tongues can poison truth."

"That willing suspension of disbelief for the moment, which constitutes poetic faith."

"Ah! well a-day! what evil looks Had I from old and young! Instead of the cross, the Albatross About my neck was hung."

"No man was ever yet a great poet, without being at the same time a profound philosopher."

"The most happy marriage I can picture or imagine to myself would be the union of a deaf man to a blind woman."

"As long as there are readers to be delighted with calumny there will be found reviewers to calumniate."

"Facts are not truths they are not conclusions they are not even premisses but in the nature and parts of premisses."

"Silence does not always mark wisdom."

"Talk of the devil, and his horns appear."

"What begins in fear usually ends in folly."

"In politics, what begins in fear usually ends in failure."

"The one red leaf, the last of its clan,That dances as often as dance it can,Hanging so light, and hanging so high,On the topmost twig that looks up at the sky."

"And though thou notest from thy safe recess old friends burn dim, like lamps in noisome air love them for what they are; nor love them less, because to thee they are not what they were."

"Sir, I admit your general rule, That every poet is a fool, But you yourself may serve to show it, That every fool is not a poet."

"Down dropt the breeze, the sails dropt down, 'Twas sad as sad could be; And we did speak only to break The silence of the sea! All in a hot and copper sky, The bloody Sun, at noon, Right up above the mast did stand, No bigger than the Moon. Day after day, day after day, We stuck, nor breath nor motion; As idle as a painted ship Upon a painted ocean."

"He is the best physician who is the most ingenious inspirer of hope."

"No one does anything from a single motive."

"Since then, at an uncertain hour, That agony returns: And till my ghastly tale is told, This heart within me burns."

"If men could learn from history, what lessons it might teach us. But passion and party blind our eyes, and the light which experience gives us is a lantern on the stern, which shines only on the waves behind us."

"I have seen great intolerance shown in support of tolerance."

"Every other science presupposes intelligence as already existing and complete: the philosopher contemplates it in its growth, and as it were represents its history to the mind from its birth to its maturity."

"Poetry: the best words in the best order."

"Talent, lying in the understanding, is often inherited; genius, being the action of reason or imagination, rarely or never."

"Good and bad men are less than they seem."

"So lonely 'twas that God himself scarce seemed there to be."

"The act of praying is the very highest energy of which the human mind is capable; praying, that is, with the total concentration of the faculties. The great mass of worldly men and of learned men are absolutely incapable of prayer."

"What is an epigram? A dwarfish whole its body brevity and wit its soul."

"The genius of the Spanish people is exquisitely subtle, without being at all acute; hence there is so much humour and so little wit in their literature."

"What if you slept? And what if, in your sleep, you dreamed? And what if, in your dream, you went to heaven and there plucked a strange and beautiful flower? And what if, when you awake, you had the flower in your hand? Ah, what then?"

"A grief without a pang, void, dark and drear,A drowsy, stifled, unimpassioned grief,Which finds no natural outlet or relief,In word, or sigh, or tear."

"Swans sing before they die - 'twere no bad thing should certain persons die before they sing."

"Until you understand a writer's ignorance, presume yourself ignorant of his understanding."

"If a man could pass through Paradise in a dream, and have a flower presented to him as a pledge that his soul had really been there, and if he found that flower in his hand when he awake - Aye, what then?"

"Common sense in an uncommon degree is what the world calls wisdom."

"Only the wise possess ideas the greater part of mankind are possessed by them."

"He who is best prepared can best serve his moment of inspiration."