“The very fact that the All good should have permitted such an intellect to fall into confusion, proves how little we ought to value ourselves on intellectual endowments, apart from our moral use of them.”

Placing moral use above intellectual brilliance as the true measure of worth · Letter to Mrs Samuel Taylor Coleridge, 6 November 1836

• Morality
• Truth

“I have now in some measure, to support the part of a man: and, to tell the truth, I feel not unlike an actor who has come upon the stage to speak, with his character but half-learned.”

Capturing the unease of entering adulthood before feeling fully prepared · Letter to Charles Lamb, 16 May 1815

• Identity
• Time

“Would that I could but see you, talk to you, were it but for a single hour—O Derwent, we have sustained the greatest loss which Time or Death can ever inflict.”

Giving voice to fraternal grief after the death of their father · Letter to Derwent Coleridge, 1 August 1834

• Death
• Grief
• Time