“The trumpet does no more stun you by its loudness, than a whisper teases you by its provoking inaudibility
“A vacuum of ideas affects people differently than a vacuum of air, otherwise readers of books would be constantly collapsing
“An opera may be allowed to be extravagantly lavish in its decorations, as its only design is to gratify the senses and keep up an indolent attention in the audience
“Where painting is weakest, namely, in the expression of the highest moral and spiritual ideas, there music is sublimely strong.
“There are certain things in which mediocrity is not to be endured, such as poetry, music, painting, public speaking
“If I had my life to live over again, I would have made a rule to read some poetry and listen to some music at least once a week.
“Praise or blame has but a momentary effect on the man whose love of beauty in the abstract makes him a severe critic on his own works
“Poetry should surprise by a fine excess and not by singularity, it should strike the reader as a wording of his own highest thoughts, and appear almost a remembrance
“It’s none of their business that you have to learn how to write. Let them think you were born that way
“A reader seldom peruses a book with pleasure until he knows whether the writer of it be a black man or a fair man, of a mild or choleric disposition, married or a bachelor
“Books are the legacies that a great genius leaves to mankind, which are delivered down from generation to generation as presents to the posterity of those who are yet unborn
“When a book raises your spirit, and inspires you with noble and courageous feelings, seek for no other rule to judge the event by; it is good and made by a good workman