“Weary of myself, and sick of asking What I am, and what I ought to be, At this vessel's prow I stand, which bears me Forwards, forwards, o'er the starlit sea.”

“For rigorous teachers seized my youth,And purged its faith, and trimmed its fire,Showed me the high, white star of Truth,There bade me gaze, and there aspire.Even now their whispers pierce the gloom'What dost thou in this living tomb?”

“Up the still, glistening beaches,Up the creeks we will hie,Over banks of bright seaweedThe ebb-tide leaves dry.We will gaze, from the sand-hills,At the white, sleeping town;At the church on the hill-side—And then come back down.Singing: "There dwells a loved one,But cruel is she!She left lonely for everThe kings of the sea.(from poem 'The Forsaken Merman')”

“Conduct is three-fourths of our life and its largest concern.”

“Truth sits upon the lips of dying men.”

“Poetry a criticism of life under the conditions fixed for such a criticism by the laws of poetic truth and poetic beauty. ”

“To have the sense of creative activity is the great happiness and the great proof of being alive.”

“The freethinking of one age is the common sense of the next.”

“Sad Patience, too near neighbour to despair.”

“Bald as the bare mountain tops are bald, with a baldness full of grandeur.”

“Poetry is simply the most beautiful, impressive, and widely effective mode of saying things.”