The mass of mankind is divided into two classes, the Sancho Panza’s who have a sense for reality, but no ideals, and the Don Quixote’s with a sense for ideals, but mad.
I like to walk about among the beautiful things that adorn the world; but private wealth I should decline, or any sort of personal possessions, because they would take away my liberty.
The effort of art is to keep what is interesting in existence, to recreate it in the eternal.
Old places and old persons in their turn, when spirit dwells in them, have an intrinsic vitality of which youth is incapable, precisely, the balance and wisdom that come from long perspectives and broad foundations.
I have imagination, and nothing that is real is alien to me.
Artists have no less talents than ever, their taste, their vision, their sentiment are often interesting; they are mighty in their independence and feeble only in their works.
Repetition is the only form of permanence that Nature can achieve.
The passions grafted on wounded pride are the most inveterate; they are green and vigorous in old age.
It is possible to be a master in false philosophy, easier, in fact, than to be a master in the truth, because a false philosophy can be made as simple and consistent as one pleases.
It is veneer, rouge, aestheticism, art museums, new theaters, etc. that make America impotent. The good things are football, kindness, and jazz bands.
History is a pack of lies about events that never happened told by people who weren’t there.
The muffled syllables that Nature speaks Fill us with deeper longing for her word; She hides a meaning that the spirit seeks, She makes a sweeter music than is heard.
Beauty as we feel it is something indescribable; what it is or what it means can never be said.
Perhaps the only true dignity of man is his capacity to despise himself.
Experience seems to most of us to lead to conclusions, but empiricism has sworn never to draw them.
The Bible is a wonderful source of inspiration for those who don’t understand it.
It is wisdom to believe the heart.
One’s friends are that part of the human race with which one can be human.
Before he sets out, the traveler must possess fixed interests and facilities to be served by travel.
We must welcome the future, remembering that soon it will be the past; and we must respect the past, remembering that it was once all that was humanly possible.