Pain has no effect but to steal some of my time.
Tragedy is always a mistake; and the loneliness of the deepest thinker, the widest lover, ceases to be pathetic to us so soon as the sun is high enough above the mountains.
The mind is not, I know, a highway, but a temple, and its doors should not be carelessly left open.
If anything can be invented more excruciating than an English Opera, such as was the fashion at the time I was in London, I am sure no sin of mine deserves the punishment of bearing it.
Beware the mediocrity that threatens middle age, its limitation of thought and interest, its dullness of fancy, its too external life, and mental thinness.
As to marriage, I think the intercourse of heart and mind may be fully enjoyed without entering into this partnership of daily life.
Who can ever be alone for a moment in Italy? Every stone has a voice, every grain of dust seems instinct with spirit from the Past, every step recalls some line, some legend of long-neglected lore.
Union is only possible to those who are units. To be fit for relations in time, souls, whether of man or woman, must be able to do without them in the spirit.
While any one is base, none can be entirely free and noble.
Tremble not before the free man, but before the slave who has chains to break.
Male and female represent the two sides of the great radical dualism. But in fact they are perpetually passing into one another. Fluid hardens to solid, solid rushes to fluid. There is no wholly masculine man, no purely feminine woman.
When the intellect and affections are in harmony; when intellectual consciousness is calm and deep; inspiration will not be confounded with fancy.
With the intellect, I always have-always shall overcome, but that is not half of the work of life. The life-oh my God-shall the life never be sweet?
The man of science dissects the statement, verifies the facts, and demonstrates connection even where he cannot its purpose.
There are noble books but one wants the breath of life sometimes.
Genius will live and thrive without training, but it does not the less reward the watering pot and the pruning knife.
A great work of Art demands a great thought or a thought of beauty adequately expressed. – Neither in Art nor Literature more than in Life can an ordinary thought be made interesting because well-dressed.
All greatness affects different minds, each in its own particular kind, and the variations of testimony mark the truth of feeling.
We would have every arbitrary barrier thrown down. We would have every path laid open to women as freely as to men. If you ask me what offices they may fill, I reply-any. I do not care what case you put; let them be sea captains, if you will.
Essays, entitled critical, are epistles addressed to the public, through which the mind of the recluse relieves itself of its impressions.