Of what use were the arts if they were only the reproduction and the imitation of life?
On the day when man told the story of his life to man, history was born.
The study of social progress is today not less needed in literature than is the analysis of the human heart.
What is the use of theorizing as to wherein lies the charm that moves us?
Art ought never to be considered except in its relations with its ideal beauty.
But it is the province of religion, of philosophy, of pure poetry only, to go beyond life, beyond time, into eternity.
Do you not see with your own eyes the chrysalis fact assume by degrees the wings of fiction?
Of what use is the memory of facts, if not to serve as an example of good or of evil?
The human mind, I believe, cares for the True only in the general character of an epoch.
We live in an age of universal investigation, and of exploration of the sources of all movements.
