“The isms go, the ist dies, art remains”

“Beauty plus pity-that is the closest we can get to a definition of art. Where there is beauty there is pity for the simple reason that beauty must die: beauty always dies, the manner dies with the matter, the world dies with the individual.”

“what makes a work of fiction safe from larvae and rust is not its social importance but its art, only its art”

“There is no science without fancy and no art without fact.”

“If sex is the sermon made of art, love is the lady of that tower.”

“I am aware of many things being quite as important as good writing and good reading; but in all things it is wiser to go directly to the quiddity, to the text, to the source, to the essence—and only then evolve whatever theories may tempt the philosopher, or the historian, or merely please the spirit of the day. Readers are born free and ought to remain free.”

“A work of art has no importance whatever to society. It is only important to the individual. ”