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.

Art, like morality, consists of drawing the line somewhere.

I hate the whole race. There is no believing a word they say—your professional poets, I mean—there never existed a more worthless set than Byron and his friends for example.

The aim of art is to represent not the outward appearance of things, but their inward significance.

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