Studies in Letters and Life |
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Popular passages
Page 58 - Dilke on various subjects; several things dove-tailed in my mind, and at once it struck me what quality went to form a Man of Achievement, especially in Literature, and which Shakespeare possessed so enormously — I mean Negative Capability, that is, when a man is capable of being in uncertainties, mysteries, doubts, without any irritable reaching after fact and reason...
Page 206 - I trust is their destiny, to console the afflicted, to add sunshine to daylight by making the happy happier, to teach the young and the gracious of every age, to see, to think and feel, and therefore to become more actively and securely virtuous...
Page 16 - Who hath not seen Thee oft amid thy store? Sometimes whoever seeks abroad may find Thee sitting careless on a granary floor...
Page 49 - This morning I am in a sort of temper, indolent and supremely careless — I long after a stanza or two of Thomson's Castle of Indolence — my passions are all asleep, from my having slumbered till nearly eleven, and weakened the animal fibre all over me, to a delightful sensation, about three degrees on this side of faintness. If I had teeth of pearl and the breath of lilies I should call it languor, but as I am* I must call it laziness.
Page 59 - O for a Life of Sensations rather than of Thoughts ! It is 'a Vision in the form of Youth' a Shadow of reality to come...
Page 58 - I am certain of nothing but of the holiness of the Heart's affections and the truth of Imagination— What the imagination seizes as Beauty must be truth— whether it existed before or not...
Page 15 - Borgia, thou once wert almost too august And high for adoration ; now thou 'rt dust. All that remains of thee these plaits unfold, Calm hair meandering in pellucid gold.
Page 243 - Theology gave me as much delight as did Euclid. The careful study of these works, without attempting to learn any part of it by rote, was the only part of the Academical Course which, as I then felt and as I still believe, was of the least use to me in the education of my mind.
Page 58 - A year ago I could not understand in the slightest degree Raphael's cartoons; now I begin to read them a little, and how did I learn to do so? By seeing something done in quite an opposite...
Page 50 - I will tell you I am not — she kept me awake one Night as a tune of Mozart's might do. I speak of the thing as a pastime and an amusement, than which I can feel none deeper than a conversation with an imperial woman, the very ' yes ' and ' no ' of whose Lips is to me a Banquet.