The democratic age mourns the value of human beings.

At our present bad moment, we need above all to recover our sense of literary individuality and of poetic autonomy.

Samuel Johnson said Alexander Pope's translation of the Iliad, "tuned the English tongue.

One reads for oneself and for strangers.

Originality must compound with inheritance.

The aesthetic and the agonistic are one, according to the ancient Greeks.

The inventor knows HOW to borrow.

Persuasion is a strong but subdued outrider.

King die hard, in Shakespeare and in life.

Shakespeare's exquisite imagining belies our total inability to live in the present moment.

Reviewing bad books is bad for the character – WH Auden

there is no action kind enough to express heartbreak. I am left shut, the quietest of blossoms.

War hath no fury like a noncombatant.

I wouldn't really call myself a feminist. I obviously want equality and equal opportunities to the men.

I'm convinced the question of development is mainly an issue of governance and leadership.

I always wear beige, black or white. For one thing I look good in them. For another, when I'm beside a star at a fitting, and she looks into the mirror, I don't want to be competing in any way.

Mobs in their emotions are much like children, subject to the same tantrums and fits of fury.

Kids esteem themselves when they have accomplished something worth esteeming.

We do students a great disservice by implying that one set of students is more important than another.

No friend have I. I must live by myself alone; but I know well that God is nearer to me than others in my art, so I will walk fearlessly with Him.

You must pay for your sins. If you have already paid, please ignore this notice.