"My soul is like this cloudy, flaming opal ring."

“All art is a form of artifice.For in art there can be no prejudices.”

“Without charm there can be no fine literature, as there can be no perfect flower without fragrance.”

“Criticism is properly the rod of divination: a hazel switch for the discovery of buried treasure, not a birch twig for the castigation of offenders.”

“The mystic too full of God to speak intelligibly to the world.”

“What we ask of him is, that he should find out for us more than we can find out for ourselves.... He must have the passion of a lover.”

“He knew that the whole mystery of beauty can never be comprehended by the crowd, and that while clearness is a virtue of style, perfect explicitness is not a necessary virtue.”