“To elevate the soul, poetry is necessary.”

“When, indeed, men speak of Beauty, they mean, precisely, not a quality, as is supposed, but an effect - they refer, in short, just to that intense and pure elevation of soul - not of intellect, or of heart.”

“That pleasure which is at once the most pure, the most elevating and the most intense, is derived, I maintain, from the contemplation of the beautiful.”

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

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

“I would define, in brief, the poetry of words as the rhythmical creation of beauty.”

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