Nothing is so deceptive as human reasoning, - nothing so slippery and reversible as what we have decided to call 'logic.' The truest compass of life is spiritual instinct.

Such lovely warmth of thought and delicacy of colour are beyond all praise, and equally beyond all thanks!

Let me be mad, then, by all means! mad with the madness of Absinthe, the wildest, most luxurious madness in the world! Vive la folie! Vive l'amour! Vive l'animalisme! Vive le Diable!

You should always be well and bright, for so you do your best work; and you have so much beautiful work to do. The world needs it, and you must give it!

Nothing gives small minds a better handle for hatred than superiority.

Flowers are like visible messages from God.

No one is contented in this world, I believe. There is always something left to desire, and the last thing longed for always seems the most necessary to happiness.

Wealth acts merely as a kind of mirror to show you human nature at its worst.

There is no wealth but love.

The Church is a system, - but whether it is as much founded on the teaching of our Lord, who was divine, as on the teaching of St. Paul, who was not divine, is a question to me of much perplexity.

Great Poets discover themselves. Little Poets have to be 'discovered' by somebody else.

make the most of the day, by determining to spend it on two sorts of acquaintances only - those by whom something may be got, and those from whom something may be learned. - Colton

We are only constrained by the boundaries of our imagination

I hate it when people romanticize Scotland.

The ruling passion, be it what it will. The ruling passion conquers reason still.

The ivory tower of the artist may be the only stronghold left for human values, cultural treasures, man’s cult of beauty.

Particularly at the moment, it's an incredibly optimistic thing to bring children into the world.

If I stopped making records or performing, I'd probably still be famous for a while being me. But I'd rather have something to show for myself.

My life has been one long descent into respectability.

There is an original inside me.