“ I have two luxuries to brood over in my walks, your loveliness and the hour of my death. O that I could have possession of them both in the same minute. ”

“ Land and sea, weakness and decline are great separators, but death is the great divorcer for ever. ”

“ The excellency of every art is its intensity, capable of making all disagreeable evaporate. ”

“ Nothing ever becomes real till it is experienced. ”

“ Scenery is fine - but human nature is finer. ”

“ Poetry should... should strike the reader as a wording of his own highest thoughts, and appear almost a remembrance. ”

“ I have been astonished that men could die martyrs for religion - I have shuddered at it. I shudder no more - I could be martyred for my religion - Love is my religion - I could die for that. ”

“ My imagination is a monastery and I am its monk. ”

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

“ A thing of beauty is a joy forever: its loveliness increases it will never pass into nothingness. ”