1. “All books are divisible into two classes, the books of the hour, and the books of all time.”
2. ”Beauty deprived of its proper foils and adjuncts ceases to be enjoyed as beauty, just as light deprived of all shadows ceases to be enjoyed as light.”
3. "Great nations write their autobiographies in three manuscripts: the book of their deeds, the book of their words, and the book of their art. Not one of these books can be understood unless we read the two others, but of the three the only trustworthy one is the last."
4. "I have not yet spoken, nor is it possible for me today to speak adequately, of the moral power of the imagination: but you may for yourselves enough discern its nature merely by comparing the dignity of the relations between the sexes, from their lowest level in moths or molluscs, through the higher creatures in whom they become a domestic influence and law, up to the love of pure men and women; and, finally, to the ideal love which animated chivalry. Throughout this vast ascent it is the gradual increase of the imaginative faculty which exalts and enlarges the authority of the passion, until, at its height, it is the bulwark of patience, the tutor of honour, and the perfectness of praise. You will find further, that as of love, so of all the other passions, the right government and exaltation begins in that of the Imagination, which is lord over them. For to subdue the passions, which is thought so often to be the sum of duty respecting them, is possible enough to a proud dullness; but to excite them rightly, and make them strong for good, is the work of the unselfish imagination."
5. ”In every person who comes near you look for what is good and strong, honor that; try to imitate it, and your faults will drop off like dead leaves when their time comes.”
6. “In general, pride is at the bottom of all great mistakes.”
7. “In order that people may be happy in their work, these three things are needed:
They must be fit for it:
They must not do too much of it:
And they must have a sense of success in it.”
8. “It is written on the arched sky; it looks out from every star. It is the poetry of Nature; it is that which uplifts the spirit within us.”
9. “Multitudes think they like to do evil; yet no man ever really enjoyed doing evil since God made the world.”
10. “Remember that the most beautiful things in the world are the most useless: peacocks and lilies for instance.”
11. “Say all you have to say in the fewest possible words, or your reader will be sure to skip them; and in the plainest possible words or he will certainly misunderstand them.”
12. ”Sunshine is delicious, rain is refreshing, wind braces up, snow is exhilarating; there is no such thing as bad weather, only different kinds of weather.”
13. ”The greatest thing a human soul ever does in this world . . . To see clearly is poetry, prophecy and religion all in one.”
14. “The purest and most thoughtful minds are those which love colour the most.”
15. "When love and skill work together, expect a masterpiece."
