Great Throughts Treasury

"‘Beauty is truth, truth beauty,’ - that is all ye know on earth, and all ye need to know."

"I am certain of nothing but the holiness of the Heart's affections., the truth of Imagination. What the Imagination seizes as Beauty must be the truth- whether it existed before or not,- for I have the same idea of all our passions as of Love: they are all, in their sublime, creative of essential Beauty."

"A man's life of any worth is a continual allegory - and very few eyes can see the mystery of his life - a life like the scriptures, figurative."

"Albeit failure in any cause produces a correspondent misery in the soul, yet it is, in a sense, the highway to success, inasmuch as every discovery of what is false leads us to seek earnestly after what is true, and every fresh experience points out some form of error which we shall afterward carefully eschew."

"A thing of beauty is a joy forever; its loveliness increases! it will never pass into nothingness."

"Failure is, in a sense, the highway to success, inasmuch as every discovery of what is false leads us to seek earnestly after what is true, and every fresh experience points out some form of error which we shall afterward carefully avoid."

"Heard melodies are sweet, but those unheard are sweeter."

"But this is human life: the war, the deeds, the disappointment, the anxiety, imagination's struggles, far and nigh, all human; bearing in themselves this god, that they are still the air, the subtle food, to make us feel existence."

"I am certain of nothing but of the holiness of the Heart’s affections, and the truth of Imagination. What the Imagination seizes as Beauty must be truth - whether it existed before or not, for I have the same idea of all our passions as of Love: they are all, in their sublime, creative of essential Beauty... The Imagination may be compared to Adam’s dream - he awoke and found it truth."

"Life is but a day; a fragile dew-drop on its perilous way from a tree's summit."

"Nothing ever becomes real till it is experienced - Even a proverb is no proverb to you till your Life is illustrated by it."

"Share the inward fragrance of each other’s heart."

"Sorrow is wisdom."

"The imagination may be compared to Adam's dream - he awoke and found it truth."

"The imagination of a boy is healthy, and the mature imagination of a man is healthy; but there is a space of life between, in which the soul is in a ferment, the character undecided, the way of life uncertain, the ambition thicksighted."

"A man’s life of any worth is a continual allegory [Allegory: a representation of an abstract or spiritual meaning through concrete or material forms; figurative treatment of one subject under the guise of another, a symbolic narrative]."

"Call the world if you please `The Vale of Soul-Making.’"

"I am certain of nothing but the holiness of the heart’s affections and the truth of imagination – what the imagination seizes as being must be truth – whether it existed before or not."

"`Beauty is truth, truth beauty,’ – that is all ye know on earth, and all ye need to know."

"I can never feel certain of any truth, but from a clear perception of its beauty."

"A proverb is no proverb to you ‘till life has illustrated it."

"The automobile changed our dress, manners, social customs, vacation habits, the shape of our cities, consumer purchasing patterns, common tastes and positions in intercourse."

"I am certain of nothing but the holiness of the heart's affections, and the truth of imagination."

"There is no a priori knowledge; hence there are no eternal absolutes; no timeless objective goals. Everything, truth included, is relative. Moreover, the present is the only reality we can ever truly know and use."

"Philosophy will clip an angel's wings, Conquer all mysteries by rule and line, Empty the haunted air, and gnomed mine- Unweave a rainbow."

"The only means of strengthening one's intellect is to make up one's mind about nothing - to let the mind be a thoroughfare for all thoughts."

"What the imagination seizes as beauty must be truth."

"'Beauty is truth, truth beauty,' - that is all ye know on earth, and all ye need to know. "

"Do you not see how necessary a world of pains and troubles is to school an intelligence and make it a soul?"

"Touch has a memory."

"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."

"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 be great and unobtrusive, a thing which enters into one's soul, and does not startle it or amaze it with itself, but with its subject."

"Carpe diem. Seize the day."

"Life is but a day: a fragile dewdrop on its perilious way from a trees summit."

"There is nothing stable in the world; uproar's your only music."

"The problems of the world cannot possibly be solved by skeptics or cynics whose horizons are limited by the obvious realities. We need men who can dream of things that never were."

"You are always new. The last of your kisses was even the sweetest; the last smile the brightest; the last movement the gracefullest."

"Don't be discouraged by a failure. It can be a positive experience. Failure is, in a sense, the highway to success, inasmuch as every discovery of what is false leads us to seek earnestly after what is true, and every fresh experience points out some form of error which we shall afterwards carefully avoid."

"I cannot exist without you - I am forgetful of every thing but seeing you again - my Life seems to stop there - I see no further. You have absorb'd me. I have a sensation at the present moment as though I were dissolving... I have been astonished that Men could die Martyrs for religion - I have shudder'd at it - I shudder no more - I could be martyr'd for my Religion - Love is my religion - I could die for that - I could die for you. My creed is Love and you are its only tenet - You have ravish'd me away by a Power I cannot resist"

"O for a life of Sensations rather than of Thoughts!"