Were I a philosopher, I should write a philosophy of toys, showing that nothing else in life need to be taken seriously, and that Christmas Day in th….

It may be that all games are silly. But then, so are humans..

W. B. Yeats has created, if not a new world, a new star. He is not a reporter of life as it is, to the extent that Shakespeare or Browning is. One is….

The art of writing history is the art of emphasizing the significant facts at the expense of the insignificant. And it is the same in every field of ….

It is the custom when praising a Russian writer to do so at the expense of all other Russian writers..

Chekhov will seek out the key situation in the life of a cabman or a charwoman, and make them glow for a brief moment in the tender light of his symp….

Jane Austen has often been praised as a natural historian. She is a naturalist among tame animals. She does not study men (as Dostoevsky does) in his….

The last spectacle of which Christian men are likely to grow tired is a harbour. Centuries hence there may be jumping-off places for the stars, and o….

With Wordsworth, indeed, the light of revelation did not fall upon human beings so unbrokenly as upon the face of the earth. He knew the birds of the….

The days on which one has been the most inquisitive are among the days on which one has been happiest..

In order to see birds it is necessary to become a part of the silence..

There are two sorts of curiosity - the momentary and the permanent. The momentary is concerned with the odd appearance on the surface of things. The ….

It is doubtful if even experience of riches and success is as intense among those who have experienced nothing else as among those who have also expe….

On the whole, however, the critic is far less of a professional faultfinder than is sometimes imagined. He is first of all a virtue-finder, a singer ….