Modesty is a virtue not often found among poets, for almost every one of them thinks himself the greatest in the world.

Art imitates nature as well as it can, as a pupil follows his master; thus it is a sort of grandchild of God.

It has always been my practice to cast a long paragraph in a single mold, to try it by my ear, to deposit it in my memory, but to suspend the action of the pen till I had given the last polish to my work.

We possess art lest we perish of the truth.

Art is a jealous mistress, and if a man have a genius for painting, poetry, music, architecture, or philosophy, he makes a bad husband and an ill provider.