“There is a poetical as well as a moral hypocrisy: and it is possible for the literary as well as the moral Pharisee to make void the living Law through dead tradition.”

Warning that inherited forms can become empty when detached from living truth · Lecture, Nature of Poetry, 1857

• Poetry
• Truth

“A good catalogue may be the best premier pas to all manner of excellent writing.”

Seeing careful observation and factual description as foundations for good writing · Letter to a young sister, 12 January 1858

• Art
• Truth

“All co-operative movements of many things that are obliged to conform to one time-beater, like the heart, must be rhythmic in order to avoid collision.”

Connecting rhythm with the ordered co-operation found in living systems · Unpublished notes, Poetry and Art

• Music
• Nature
• Poetry