“I merely contend that science is apt to be cold-hearted, and does not seem always to take into consideration the tortures she inflicts in her search for knowledge.”

Calling for compassion to accompany scientific inquiry, particularly where living creatures suffer · Essay, The Cruelty of Science, in Ponkapog Papers (1903)

• Compassion
• Knowledge
• Morality

“The thing one reads and likes, and then forgets, is of no account. The thing that stays, and haunts one, and refuses to be forgotten, that is the sincere thing.”

Defining lasting emotional impression as a test of genuine literary power · Essay collection, Ponkapog Papers (1903)

• Literature
• Memory
• Reading

“An incalculable amount of specious sentiment has been lavished upon daybreak, chiefly by poets who breakfasted, when they did breakfast, at mid-day.”

Teasing poets for celebrating dawn more enthusiastically in verse than in their daily habits · Essay, On Early Rising, in Ponkapog Papers (1903)

• Convention
• Humour
• Poetry