.

We really learn only from those books which we cannot criticise. The
author of a book which we could criticise would have to learn from us.

That is the reason why the Bible will never lose its power; because, as
long as the world lasts, no one can stand up and say: I grasp it as a
whole and understand all the parts of it. But we say humbly: as a whole
it is worthy of respect, and in all its parts it is applicable.

There is and will be much discussions as to the use and harm of
circulating the Bible. One thing is clear to me mischief will result, as
heretofore, by using it fantastically as a system of dogma; benefit, as
heretofore, by a loving acceptance of its teachings.

I am convinced that the Bible will always be more beautiful the more it
is understood; the more, that is, we see and observe that every word
which we take in a general sense and apply specially to ourselves, had,
under certain circumstances of time and place, a peculiar, special and
directly individual reference.

If one has not read the newspapers for some months and then reads them
altogether, one sees, as one never saw before, how much time is wasted
with this kind of literature.

Shakespeare's Henry IV. If everything were lost that has ever been
preserved to us of this kind of writing, the arts of poetry and rhetoric
could be completely restored out of this one play.

Shakespeare's finest dramas are wanting here and there in facility: they
are something more than they should be, and for that very reason
indicate the great poet.

The dignity of Art appears perhaps most conspicuously in Music; for in
Music there is no material to be deducted. It is wholly form and
intrinsic value, and it raises and ennobles all that it expresses.

It is only by Art, and especially by Poetry, that the imagination is
regulated. Nothing is more frightful than imagination without taste.

Art rests upon a kind of religious sense; it is deeply and ineradicably
in earnest. Thus it is that Art so willingly goes hand in hand with
Religion.

A noble philosopher spoke of architecture as frozen music; and it was
inevitable that many people should shake their heads over his remark. We
believe that no better repetition of this fine thought can be given than
by calling architecture a speechless music.

In every artist there is a germ of daring, without which no talent is
conceivable.

Higher aims are in themselves more valuable, even if unfulfilled, than
lower