Great Throughts Treasury

"A poet is a painter of the soul."

"Education, however indispensable in a cultivated age, produces nothing on the side of genius. When education ends, genius often begins."

"Quotation, like much better things, has its abuses. One may quote till one complies."

"The act of contemplation then creates the thing contemplated."

"The art of meditation may be exercised at all hours, and in all places; and men of genius, in their walks at table, and amidst assemblies, turning the eye of the mind inwards, can form an artificial solitude; retired amidst a crowd, calm amidst distraction, and wise amidst folly."

"The wisdom of the wise and the experience of ages may be preserved by quotation."

"Enthusiasm is that secret and harmonious spirit which hovers over the production of genius. "

"It is a wretched taste to be gratified with mediocrity when the excellent lies before us."