Men do not understand books until they have had a certain amount of life, until they have seen and lived at least part of their contents

Men do not understand books until they have a certain amount of life, or at any rate no man understands a deep book, until he has seen and lived at least part of its contents.

There is no reason why the same man should like the same books at eighteen and at forty-eight

Man reading should be man intensely alive. The book should be a ball of light in one's hand.

Нет такой формы банальности, которую нельзя без труда превратить в пятистопный ямб. Если человек научился считать до десяти, ему не сложно начать новую строку с каждого одиннадцатого слога или отбивать каждый второй слог с ударением.

Good art however 'immoral' is wholly a thing of virtue. Good art can NOT be immoral. By good art I mean art that bears true witness, I mean the art that is most precise.