Art requires, above all things, a suppression of self, a subordination of one's self to an idea.
Art is nothing more than the shadow of humanity.
A tradition is kept alive only by something being added to it.
Art is a point of view, and a genius way of looking at things.
Art does not lie in copying nature.- Nature furnishes the material by means of which is to express a beauty still unexpressed in nature.-The artist beholds in nature more than she herself is conscious of.
Art derives a considerable part of its beneficial exercise from flying in the face of presumptions.
And remember this, that if you've been hated, you've also been loved.
An Englishman's never so natural as when he's holding his tongue.
Americans will eat garbage provided you sprinkle it liberally with ketchup.
Always keep a window in the attic open; not just cracked: open.
All roads lead to Rome, and there were times when it might have struck us that almost every branch of study or subject of conversation skirted forbidden ground.
All intimacies are based on differences.
Adjectives are the sugar of literature and adverbs the salt.
A swift carriage, of a dark night, rattling with four horses over roads that one can’t see--that’s my idea of happiness.
A solitary maple on a woodside flames in single scarlet, recalls nothing so much as the daughter of a noble house dressed for a fancy ball, with the whole family gathered around to admire her before she goes.
A man who pretends to understand women is bad manners. For him to really to understand them is bad morals.
..her smile, which was her pretty feature, was never so pretty as when her sprightly phrase had a scratch lurking in it.
...The peculiar air of Oxford-the air of liberty to care for the things of the mind assured and secured by machinery which is in itself a satisfaction to sense.
...the great merit of the place is that one can arrange one's life here exactly as one pleases...there are facilities for every kind of habit and taste, and everything is accepted and understood.
...he had long decided that abundant laughter should be the embellishment of the remainder of his days.
...and the great advantage of being a literary woman, was that you could go everywhere and do everything.
... since she might not be splendid, she would at least be immaculate.
All the same don't forget that you're young — blessedly young; be glad of it on the contrary and live up to it. Live all you can; it's a mistake not to. It doesn't so much matter what you do in particular, so long as you have your life.
Any point of view is interesting that is a direct impression of life. You each have an impression colored by your individual conditions; make that into a picture, a picture framed by your own personal wisdom, your glimpse of the American world.
