Samuel Taylor Coleridge

We ought not to extract pernicious honey from poison blossoms of misrepresentation and mendacious half-truth, to pamper the course appetite of bigotry and self-love.

Common sense in an uncommon degree is what the world calls wisdom.

And all who heard should see them there, And all should cry, Beware! Beware! His flashing eyes, his floating hair! Weave a circle round him thrice, And close your eyes with holy dread, For he on honey-dew hath fed, And drunk the milk of Paradise.

Often do the spirits stride on before the event; and in today already walks tomorrow.

Mr. Lyell's system of geology is just half the truth, and no more. He affirms a great deal that is true, and he denies a great deal which is equally true; which is the general characteristic of all systems not embracing the whole truth.

To believe and to understand are not diverse things, but the same things in different periods of growth.

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.

A sight to dream of, not to tell!

So lonely 'twas that God himself Scarce seemed there to be.

All powerful souls have kindred with each other

If a man is not rising upward to be an angel, depend on it, he is sinking downward to be a devil.

Intense study of the Bible will keep any writer from being vulgar, in point of style.

Alone, Alone, all, all alone, Alone on a wide wide sea! And never saint took pity on My soul in agony

Nature never deserts the wise and pure; no plot so narrow, be but nature there; no waste so vacant, but may well employ each faculty of sense, and keep the heart awake to love and beauty.

The happiness of life is made up of minute fractions - the little, soon forgotten charities of a kiss or a smile, a kind look or heartfelt compliment.

I wish our clever young poets would remember my homely definitions of prose and poetry; that is, prose = words in their best order; - poetry = the best words in the best order.

Look through the whole history of countries professing the Romish religion, and you will uniformly find the leaven of this besetting and accursed principle of action - that the end will sanction any means.

Why is it that so many of us persist in thinking that autumn is a sad season? Nature has merely fallen asleep, and her dreams must be beautiful if we are to judge by her countenance.

Poetry has been to me its own exceeding great reward; it has given me the habit of wishing to discover the good and beautiful in all that meets and surrounds me.

Advice is like snow - the softer it falls, the longer it dwells upon, and the deeper it sinks into the mind.

The first duty of a wise advocate is to convince his opponents that he understands their arguments, and sympathies with their just feelings.