“The fine arts are all fine ladies, and they cannot replace each other or lay down the law for each other, but they may exchange courtesies now and again?”

Defending the distinctness of the arts while allowing fruitful exchange between them · Gathered Leaves, letters and diaries, 1897–1907

• Art
• Beauty

“There are some words that are like a flight of steps that end in mid-air, and there is nothing but the sky above them.”

Describing language that carries thought to the edge of the unsayable · Gathered Leaves, letters and diaries, 1897–1907

• Poetry
• Truth

“The sky is greater reading than the Bible, the sea than Shakespeare.”

Placing direct experience of nature beside the greatest books she knew · Gathered Leaves, letters and diaries, 1897–1907

• Art
• Faith
• Nature