“There is the subtler music, the clear lightWhere time burns back about th'eternal embers.We are not shut from the thousand heavens:Lo, there are many gods whom we have seen,Folk of unearthly fashion, places splendid,Bulwarks of beryl and of chrysophrase.Sapphire Benacus, in thy mists and theeNature herself's turned metaphysical,Who can look at that blue and not believe?”

“Anyone who is too lazy to master the comparatively small glossary necessary to understand Chaucer deserves to be shut out from the reading of good books forever.”

“Come, let us pity those who are better off than we are.Come, my friend, and remember that the rich have butlers and no friends,And we have friends and no butlers.(excerpt from 'The Garrett')”

“What thou lovest well remains,the rest is drossWhat thou lov’st well shall not be reft from theeWhat thou lov’st well is thy true heritage”

“My pawing over the ancients and semi-ancients has been one struggle to find out what has been done, once and for all, better than it can ever be done again, and to find out what remains for us to do, and plenty does remain, for if we still feel the same emotions as those who launched a thousand ships, it is quite certain that we came on these feelings differently, through different nuances, by different intellectual gradations. Each age has its own abounding gifts yet only some ages transmute them into matters of duration.”

“Good writers are those who keep the language efficient. That is to say, keep it accurate, keep it clear. It doesn't matter whether the good writer wants to be useful, or whether the good writer wants to be harm.”

“I have tried to write ParadiseDo not moveLet the wind speakthat is paradise.Let the Gods forgive what Ihave madeLet those I love try to forgivewhat I have made.”