“An instructed eye loves to see where the brush has dipped twice in a lustrous colour, has lain insistingly along a favourite outline, dwelt lovingly in a grand shadow.”

Arguing that apparent excess can reveal the individual choices and pleasures of an artist · Letter to Elizabeth Barrett, 13 January 1845

• Art
• Criticism
• Style

“I am naturally earnest, in earnest about whatever thing I do, and little able to write about one thing while I think of another.”

A concise statement of the concentration and seriousness he brought to creative work · Letter to Elizabeth Barrett, 30 April 1845

• Character
• Sincerity
• Writing

“It is all teaching, and the people hate to be taught.”

A blunt aside on why difficult poetry meets resistance · Letter to John Ruskin, 10 December 1855

• Poetry
• Truth