By poetry we mean the art of employing of words in such a manner as to produce an illusion on the imagination; the art of doing by means of words, what the painter does by means of colors

From the poetry of Lord Byron they drew a system of ethics, compounded of misanthropy and voluptuousness, in which the two great commandments were, to hate your neighbor, and to love your neighbor's wife

Perhaps no person can be a poet, or can even enjoy poetry, without a certain unsoundness of mind.

Nothing is so galling to a people not broken in from the birth as a paternal, or, in other words, a meddling government, a government which tells them what to read, and say, and eat, and drink and wear.

Poetry is thoughts that breathe, and words that burn.

The measure of a man's real character is what he would do if he knew he would never be found out.