43 Quotes by John Sterling

Poetry is in itself strength and joy, whether it be crowned by all mankind, or left alone in its own magic hermitage.

Language. By this we build pyramids, fight battles, ordain and administer laws, shape and teach religion, and knit man to man, cultivate each other, and ourselves.

Compliments are only lies in court clothes.

Every man's follies are the caricature resemblances of his wisdom.

Every fancy that we would substitute for a reality is, if we saw aright, and saw the whole, not only false, but every way less beautiful and excellent than that which we sacrifice to it.

Faith in a better than that which appears is no less required by art than by religion.

Enthusiasm is grave, inward, self-controlled; mere excitement, outward, fantastic, hysterical, and passing in a moment from tears to laughter.

Modern education too often covers the fingers with rings, and at the same time cuts the sinews at the wrist.

A man without earnestness is a mournful and perplexing spectacle. But it is a consolation to believe, as we must of such a one, that he is the most effectual and compulsive of all schools.