“Every great and original writer, in proportion as he is great and original, must himself create the taste by which he is to be relished.”

“Poetry is the spontaneous overflow of powerful feelings: it takes its origin from emotion recollected in tranquility.”

“Great God! I'd rather be a Pagan.... ”

“The mind of man is a thousand times more beautiful than the earth on which he dwells.”

“If thou indeed derive thy light from Heaven,Then, to the measure of that heaven-born light,Shine, Poet! in thy place, and be content: --The stars pre-eminent in magnitude,And they that from the zenith dart their beams,(Visible though they be to half the earth,Though half a sphere be conscious of their brightness)Are yet of no diviner origin,No purer essence, than the one that burns,Like an untended watch-fire on the ridgeOf some dark mountain; or than those which seemHumbly to hang, like twinkling winter lamps,Among the branches of the leafless trees.All are the undying offspring of one Sire:Then, to the measure of the light vouchsafed,Shine, Poet! in thy place, and be content.”

“What is a Poet? He is a man speaking to men: a man, it is true, endued with more lively sensibility, more enthusiasm and tenderness, who has a greater knowledge of human nature, and a more comprehensive soul, than are supposed to be common among mankind; a man pleased with his own passions and volitions, and who rejoices more than other men in the spirit of life that is in him; delighting to contemplate similar volitions and passions as manifested in the goings-on of the universe, and habitually impelled to create them where he does not find them.”

“Now, in this blank of things, a harmony,Home-felt, and home-created,comes to healThat grief for which the senses still supply Fresh food; for only then, when memoryIs hushed, am I at rest. My Friends! restrain those busy cares that would allay my pain;Oh! Leave me to myself, nor let me feelThe officious touch that makes me droop again.”