“Every master of pathos has a key of his own to unlock the source of tears, or of that passionate and piteous pleasure which lies above and under the region of tears.”

Suggesting that each great artist reaches emotion by a distinct path · Essay, Victor Hugo: L'Homme qui Rit

• Art
• Despair
• Joy

“It is not, so to speak, the literal but the spiritual order which I have studied to observe and to indicate: the periods which I seek to define belong not to chronology but to art.”

Distinguishing artistic development from mere chronological sequence · A Study of Shakespeare

• Art
• Time

“In all times there have been gods that alighted and giants that appeared on earth; the ranks of great men are properly divisible, not into thinkers and workers, but into Titans and Olympians.”

Imagining exceptional creators as different orders of mythic power · Essay, Coleridge

• Art
• Fame