“If I could make you well, I believe I would turn doctor again. I hope that dear, good old physician who cures more patients than all the M. D.’s — I mean Time — will make you strong and hearty again.”

A warm blend of medical humour and genuine faith in time as a healer · Letter to Elizabeth Stuart Phelps Ward

• Compassion
• Healing
• Time

“My life has run in a deeper channel since the hours I spent in your society last summer. They come back to me from time to time, like visitations from another and higher sphere.”

Expressing how a profound friendship can permanently alter the inner course of a life · Letter to John Lothrop Motley

• Connection
• Friendship
• Memory

“Those are the hours when friendship means the most, — when we feel that we come nearer than at any other time to our intimates, and the sense that we are perhaps lightening another’s burden makes even the commonest intercourse a source of satisfaction.”

A moving account of friendship as shared consolation in times of grief · Letter to John Lothrop Motley

• Compassion
• Friendship
• Grief

“Old Age carries one of them in his pocket. It is some kind of narcotic, — it dulls our sensibility; it tends to make us sleepy and indifferent.”

Describing the gradual emotional softening that can accompany advancing age · Letter to John O. Sargent, February 10, 1889

• Acceptance
• Age
• Emotion

“The truth is, Nature has her anodynes, and Old Age carries one of them in his pocket. It is some kind of narcotic, — it dulls our sensibility.”

A wry and surprisingly tender reflection on the consolations that accompany ageing · Letter to John O. Sargent, February 10, 1889

• Acceptance
• Age
• Nature

“A volume like this carries dismay with it, when the recipient supposes he is expected to read it from title to Finis, and it is only as a friendly token that I send it.”

His playful awareness that a substantial book can feel like an obligation to its recipient · Letter to Ireland, January 15, 1885

• Books
• Friendship
• Humour

“I am taking the opportunity to send you the last book I have written. I doubt whether you will care to read it; I doubt whether you will like it, if you do.”

A wonderfully self-deprecating response to the prospect of burdening a friend with a book · Letter to Ireland, January 15, 1885

• Books
• Humility
• Writing

“Poems are rarely printed correctly in newspapers. This is the reason so many poets die young. Please correct carefully.”

A characteristically Holmesian joke about the hazards of careless printing · Note accompanying a poem sent to a newspaper

• Humour
• Poetry
• Writing

“A library like ours must exercise the largest hospitality. A great many books may be found in every large collection which remind us of those apostolic-looking old men who figure on the platform.”

A humorous defence of allowing even obsolete or imperfect books a place on the shelves · Address at the opening of the Medical Library at Boston

• Books
• Hospitality
• Humour

“Some books are edifices, to stand as they are built; some are hewn stones, ready to form a part of future edifices; some are quarries, from which stones are to be split for shaping and after use.”

A memorable metaphor for the different ways books contribute to knowledge and culture · Memoir, chapter XIII, Occupations: Methods of Work

• Books
• Knowledge
• Literature

“The poet's function is not to describe nature, but to interpret it.”

Emphasising the poet's role as an interpreter of experience rather than a mere recorder of appearances. · Essay on poetry

• Interpretation
• Nature
• Poetry

“Poetry is not the thing itself, but the expression of the thing.”

Distinguishing artistic expression from the experience or reality that inspires it. · Essay on poetry

• Art
• Expression
• Poetry

“Anything that promotes the knowledge of Wordsworth would be acceptable to me.”

Showing his deep commitment to keeping Wordsworth's poetry and thought alive for readers. · Letter to William Angus Knight, 28 August 1884

• Authors
• Knowledge
• Poetry

“That which is creative must create itself.”

Suggesting that genuine artistic creation arises organically rather than being mechanically imposed. · Essay, The Two Chief Schools of English Poetry

• Creation
• Creativity
• Originality

“I think poetry should surprise by a fine excess, and not by singularity; it should strike the reader as a wording of his own highest thoughts, and appear almost a remembrance.”

Describing poetry as something heightened yet deeply recognisable to the reader. · Essay, The Two Chief Schools of English Poetry

• Beauty
• Poetry
• Readers

“If I fail in that attempt I shall not fret about it; others will do it later—what I have aimed at doing—and will probably do it better.”

A modest acceptance that literary ideals may be carried forward by others. · Conversation, as recalled in The Poets' Chantry

• Acceptance
• Humility
• Poetry

“I am doing what in me lies to keep alive poetry with a little conscience in it.”

Expressing his belief that poetry should retain a moral seriousness and sense of responsibility. · Conversation, as recalled in The Poets' Chantry

• Conscience
• Poetry
• Writing

“One should not make one's own opinion the measure of everything.”

Original: Man soll seine eigene Meinung nicht zum Maß aller Dinge machen. — Widely circulated under Goethe’s name, but the exact textual source is less secure than his better-attested maxims. · Maxims and Reflections, commonly attributed (German)

• Humility
• Judgement
• Opinions

“The human being is not born to solve the world but to understand where the problem begins.”

Original: Der Mensch ist nicht geboren, die Probleme der Welt zu lösen, sondern zu suchen, wo das Problem anfängt. — The wording is widely attributed to Goethe, but the precise source is difficult to establish. · Maxims and Reflections, commonly attributed (German)

• Knowledge
• Problems
• Understanding

“Nothing is more highly valued than that which is given freely and without compulsion.”

Original: Nichts wird höher geschätzt als das, was freiwillig und ohne Zwang gegeben wird. — Voluntary generosity has a moral value that cannot be produced by force. · Maxims and Reflections (German)

• Freedom
• Generosity
• Values

“The greatest thing that can happen to a person is to discover what they are capable of doing.”

Original: Das Größte, was einem Menschen begegnen kann, ist, daß er erkennt, was er vermag. — Self-knowledge becomes empowering when it reveals genuine capacity rather than imagined potential. · Maxims and Reflections (German)

• Discovery
• Potential
• Self

“It is harder than one thinks to be just.”

Original: Es ist schwerer, als man denkt, gerecht zu sein. — Justice demands more discernment and self-command than abstract principles alone suggest. · Wilhelm Meister’s Theatrical Mission (German)

• Difficulty
• Judgement
• Justice

“Both must move continually back and forth through life, like breathing in and breathing out.”

Original: Beides muß wie Aus- und Einatmen sich im Leben ewig fort hin und wider bewegen. — Thinking and action are presented as mutually dependent rhythms rather than opposing activities. · Maxims and Reflections (German)

• Action
• Life
• Wisdom

“Thinking and doing, doing and thinking: that is the sum of all wisdom.”

Original: Denken und Tun, Tun und Denken, das ist die Summe aller Weisheit. — Goethe joins reflection and action as complementary parts of practical wisdom. · Maxims and Reflections (German)

• Action
• Thought
• Wisdom