Biographies are but the clothes and buttons of a man -- the biography of the man himself cannot be written.

High and fine literature is wine, and mine is only water; but everybody likes water.

In literature imitations do not imitate

The trade of critic, in literature, music, and the drama, is the most degraded of all trades

Men think they think upon the great political questions, and they do; but they think with their party, not independently; they read its literature, but not that of the other side

Delicacy - a sad, sad false delicacy - robs literature of the two best things among its belongings: Family-circle narratives and obscene stories