It is not that the French are not profound, but they all express themselves so well that we are led to take their geese for swans.

- Van Wyck Brooks

Longfellow is to poetry what the barrel-organ is to music.

- Van Wyck Brooks

The creative impulses of man are always at war with the possessive impulses.

- Van Wyck Brooks

Better the fragrant herb of wit and a little cream of affability than all the pretty cups in the world.

- Van Wyck Brooks

Earnest people are often people who habitually look on the serious side of things that have no serious side.

- Van Wyck Brooks

Nothing is sadder than the consequences of having worldly standards without worldly means.

- Van Wyck Brooks

How delightful is the company of generous people, who overlook trifles and keep their minds instinctively fixed on whatever is good and positive in t…

- Van Wyck Brooks

The man who has the courage of his platitudes is always a successful man.

- Van Wyck Brooks

If men were basically evil, who would bother to improve the world instead of giving it up as a bad job at the outset?

- Van Wyck Brooks