There are two modes of criticism. One which crushes to earth without mercy all the humble buds of Phantasy, all the plants that, though green and fruitful, are also a prey to insects or have suffered by drought. It weeds well the garden, and cannot believe the weed in its native soil may be a pretty, graceful plant. There is another mode which enters into the natural history of every thing that breathes and lives, which believes no impulse to be entirely in vain, which scrutinizes circumstances, motive and object before it condemns, and believes there is a beauty in natural form, if its law and purpose be understood.
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What I mean by the Muse is that unimpeded clearness of the intuitive powers, which a perfectly truthful adherence to every admonition of the h...
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There is nothing in a caterpillar that tells you it's going to be a butterfly.
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It is not because the touch of genius has roused genius to production, but because the admiration of genius has made talent ambitious, that the harvest is still so abundant.
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Male and female represent the two sides of the great radical dualism. But in fact they are perpetually passing into one another. Fluid hardens to solid, solid rushes to fluid. There is no wholly masculine man, no purely feminine woman.
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Genius will live and thrive without training, but it does not the less reward the watering pot and the pruning knife.
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Essays, entitled critical, are epistles addressed to the public, through which the mind of the recluse relieves itself of its impressions.
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The especial genius of women I believe to be electrical in movement, intuitive in function, spiritual in tendency.
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Art can only be truly Art by presenting an adequate outward symbol of some fact in the interior life.
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It is astonishing what force, purity, and wisdom it requires for a human being to keep clear of falsehoods.
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Nature provides exceptions to every rule.
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For precocity some great price is always demanded sooner or later in life.
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Men for the sake of getting a living forget to live.
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Beware of over-great pleasure in being popular or even beloved.
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A house is no home unless it contains food and fire for the mind as well as the body.
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If you have knowledge, let others light their candles at it.
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