“If a poet really sorrows over the death of a friend to that degree that he cannot, as a relief to the soul, refrain from pouring out his sorrow in song, I think his utterance should be natural and straightforward.”

Insisting that genuine grief in poetry should sound natural rather than affected · Reminiscences and Opinions, 1886

• Death
• Friendship
• Poetry

“Indeed, what I am about to give to the world resembles rather a spirit distilled from the vin ordinaire of a life-talk, and bottled for future use, than a literary production.”

Describing memoir as the distilled essence of remembered conversation · Reminiscences and Opinions, 1886

• Art
• Memory
• Time

“Definitions of poetry indeed are always more or less unintelligible.”

Wryly resisting attempts to define poetry too neatly · Reminiscences and Opinions, 1886

• Poetry
• Truth