"In Xanadu did Kubla KhanA stately pleasure-dome decree:Where Alph, the sacred river, ranThrough caverns measureless to man Down to a sunless sea."

"Works of imagination should be written in very plain language; the more purely imaginative they are the more necessary it is to be plain."

"Advice is like snow - the softer it falls, the longer it dwells upon, and the deeper in sinks into the mind."

"The happiness of life is made up of minute fractions - the little, soon forgotten charities of a kiss or a smile, a kind look or heartfelt compliment."

"Hence, viper thoughts, that coil around my mind, Reality's dark dream! I turn from you, and listen to the wind."

"Intense study of the Bible will keep any writer from being vulgar, in point of style."

"But yester-night I prayed aloud In anguish and in agony, Up-starting from the fiendish crowd Of shapes and thoughts that tortured me: A lurid light, a trampling throng, Sense of intolerable wrong, And whom I scorned, those only strong! Thirst of revenge, the powerless will Still baffled, and yet burning still! Desire with loathing strangely mixed On wild or hateful objects fixed. Fantastic passions! maddening brawl! And shame and terror over all! Deeds to be hid which were not hid, Which all confused I could not know Whether I suffered, or I did: For all seemed guilt, remorse or woe, My own or others still the same Life-stifling fear, soul-stifling shame."

"Language is the armory of the human mind, and at once contains the trophies of its past and the weapons of its future conquests."

"An ear for music is very different from a taste for music. I have no ear whatever I could not sing an air to save my life but I have the intensest delight in music and can detect good from bad."