A simple and independent mind does not toil at the bidding of any prince. The way by which you may get money almost without exception leads downward. To be a philosopher is not merely to have subtle thoughts, not even to found a school, but so to love wisdom as to live according to its dictates, a life of simplicity, independence, magnanimity, and trust. Good poetry seems too simple and natural a thing that when we meet it we wonder that all men are not always poets. Poetry is nothing but healthy speech.
Books are the carriers of civilization.
Without books, history is silent, literature dumb, science crippled, thought and speculation at a standstill. I think that there is nothing, not even crime, more opposed to poetry, to philosophy, ay, to life itself than this incessant business. All perception of truth is the detection of an analogy. To regret deeply is to live afresh. There is more religion in men's science, than there is science in their religion.