“All religion, my friend, is simply evolved out of fraud, fear, greed, imagination, and poetry.”

“Music, when combined with a pleasurable idea, is poetry; music, without the idea, is simply music; the idea, without the music, is prose, from its very definitiveness.”

“The pioneers and missionaries of religion have been the real cause of more trouble and war than all other classes of mankind.”

“To elevate the soul, poetry is necessary.”

“Poetry is the rhythmical creation of beauty in words.”

“With me poetry has not been a purpose, but a passion.”

“I have great faith in fools - self-confidence my friends will call it.”