The oldest books are still only just out to those who have not read them. - Samuel Butler

[P]oetry resembles metaphysics: one does not mind one's own, but one does not like anyone else's.

The room in fact was as depressing from its slatternliness as from its atmosphere of erudition.

I know not why, but all the noblest arts hold in perfection but for a very little moment. They soon reach a height from which they begin to decline, and when they have begun to decline it is a pity that they cannot be knocked on the head; for an art is like a living organism — better dead than dying.