Childhood, whose very happiness is love.

Imagination is to love what gas is to the balloon-that which raises it from earth.

I think hearts are very much like glasses. If they do not break with the first ring, they usually last a considerable time.

Ah, tell me not that memory sheds gladness o'er the past, what is recalled by faded flowers, save that they did not last?

Social life is filled with doubts and vain aspirings; solitude, when the imagination is dethroned, is turned to weariness and ennui.

The heart's hushed secret in the soft dark eye.

Ah, tell me not that memory Sheds gladness o'er the past; What is recalled by faded flowers, Save that they did not last? Were it not better to forget, Than but remember and regret?

In sad truth, half our forebodings of our neighbors are but our own wishes, which we are ashamed to utter in any other form.

An apt quotation is like a lamp which flings its light over the whole sentence.

there is nothing so easy as to be wise for others; a species of prodigality, by-the-by - for such wisdom is wholly wasted.

Strange mystery of our nature, that those in whom genius develops itself in imagination, thus taking its most ethereal form, should yet be the most dependent on the opinions of others!

I like the feeling of words doing as they want to do and as they have to do.

Love yourself like your life depends on it, because it does.

One reason I was interested in photography was to get away from the preciousness of the art object.

It is not easy to convey, unless one has experienced it, the dramatic feeling of sudden enlightenment that floods the mind when the right idea finally clinches into place.

In religion, faith is a virtue. In science, faith is a vice.

Anyone of conscience could come look at my book and see it as an esoteric oddity or be intrigued by it. It could happen either way on a thousand different little decisions each individual might make.

When you're in a place like New York or D.C. you just can't beat it, and it's so hard to recreate because they are both such distinctive places.

Panic, not the task, is the enemy.

It's just really tragic after all the horrors of the last 1,000 years we can't leave behind something as primitive as government-sponsored execution.

To announce that there must be no criticism of the president... is morally treasonable to the American public.