Works of imagination should be written in very plain language; the more purely imaginative they are the more necessary it is to be plain.

Deep thinking is attainable only by a man of deep feeling, and all truth is a species of revelation

The many men, so beautiful! And they all dead did lie: And a thousand thousand slimy things Lived on; and so did I.

What comes from the heart goes to the heart

The fair breeze blew, The white foam flew, And the forrow followed free. We were the first to ever burst into the silent sea.

Prose: words in their best order; poetry: the best words in the best order.

Good and bad men are each less so than they seem.

Swiftly, swiftly flew the ship, Yet she sailed softly too: Sweetly, sweetly blew the breeze - On me alone it blew.

Alas; they had been friends in youth but whispering tongues can poison truth

He went like one that hath been stunn'd, And is of sense forlorn: A sadder and a wiser man He rose the morrow morn.

Swans sing before they die— 't were no bad thing Should certain persons die before they sing.

A man’s desire is for the woman, but the woman’s desire is rarely other than for the desire of the man.

If a man could pass through Paradise in a dream, and have a flower presented to him as a pledge that his soul had really been there, and if he found that flower in his hand when he awoke - Aye! and what then?

Sympathy constitutes friendship; but in love there is a sort of antipathy, or opposing passion. Each strives to be the other, and both together make up one whole.

To see him act is like reading Shakespeare by flashes of lightning.

An orphans curse would drag to hell A spirit from on high; But oh! How more horrible that that Is the curse in a dead man’s eye!

In politics, what begins in fear usually ends in folly

Everyone should have two or three hives of bees. Bees are easier to keep than a dog or a cat. They are more interesting than gerbils.

Ah! well a-day! what evil looks Had I from old and young! Instead of the cross, the Albatross About my neck was hung.

If you would stand well with a great mind, leave him with a favorable impression of yourself; if with a little mind, leave him with a favorable impression of himself.

And to be wroth with one we love…Doth work like madness in the brain.

He prayeth best who loveth best, all things both great and small.

Willing Suspension of Disbelief

I look'd to Heav'n, and try'd to pray; But or ever a prayer had gusht, A wicked whisper came and made My heart as dry as dust.

Until you understand a writer's ignorance, presume yourself ignorant of his understanding.

They stood aloof the scars remaining. Like cliffs which had been rent asunder.

In nature there is nothing melancholy

Nature has her proper interest; and he will know what it is, who believes and feels, that every thing has a life of its own, and that we are all one life.

To be loved is all I need, And whom I love, I love indeed.

Whiles all the night, through fog-smoke white, Glimmered the white moonshine. [...] Day after day, day after day, We stuck, nor breath nor motion; As idle as a painted ship Upon a painted ocean.

What is an Epigram? A dwarfish whole, Its body brevity, and wit its soul.

An orphan's curse would drag to hell A spirit from on high; But oh! more horrible than that Is the curse in a dead man's eye! Seven days, seven nights, I saw that curse, And yet I could not die.

A sight to dream of, not to tell!

And life is thorny; and youth is vain

The frost performs its secret ministry, Unhelped by any wind.

I shot the ALBATROSS.

Then all the charm Is broken--all that phantom-world so fair Vanishes, and a thousand circlets spread, And each mis-shape the other.

What is there in thee, Man, that can be known? Dark fluxion, all unfixable by thought, A phantom dim of past and future wrought, Vain sister of the worm ...

Oh sleep! it is a gentle thing, Beloved from pole to pole! To Mary Queen the praise be given! She sent the gentle sleep from Heaven, That slid into my soul.

Not one man in a thousand has the strength of mind or the goodness of heart to be an atheist.

Experience informs us that the first defense of weak minds is to recriminate.

A savage place! as holy and enchanted As e'er beneath a waning moon was haunted By woman wailing for her demon-lover!

The one red leaf, the last of its clan, That dances as often as dance it can, Hanging so light, and hanging so high, On the topmost twig that looks up at the sky.

Weave a circle round him thrice, And close your eyes with holy dread, For he on honey-dew hath fed, And drank the milk of Paradise.

The selfmoment I could pray; And from my neck so free The Albatross fell off, and sank Like lead into the sea.

Men, I still think, ought to be weighed, not counted. Their worth ought to be the final estimate of their value.

He who begins by loving Christianity more than Truth, will proceed by loving his sect or church better than Christianity, and end in loving himself better than all.

Every reform, however necessary, will by weak minds be carried to an excess, that itself will need reforming.

About, about, in reel and rout The death-fires danced at night; The water, like a witch's oils, Burnt green, and blue, and white

Yea, slimy things did crawl with legs Upon the slimy sea.