fiefoe

There is a perfect consciousness in every form of wit, ... its essence consists in a partial and incomplete view of whatever it touches. It throws a single ray, - red, yellow.. - upon an object; never white light; that is the province of wisdom. We get beautiful effects from wit, but never the object as it is in fair daylight. A pun, ... is a different and much shallower trick of mental optics; throwing the shadows of two objects so that one overlies the other.
Rhythm and rhyme and the harmonies of musical language, the play of fancy, the fire of imagination, the flashes of passion, so hide the nakedness of a heart laid open, that hardly any confession, transfigured in the luminous halo of poetry, is reproached as self-exposure. A beauty shows herself under the chandeliers, protected by the glitter of her diamonds, which such a broad snow-drift of white arms and shoulders laid bare, that, were she unadorned and in plain calico, she would be unendurable - in the opinion of the ladies.
Society is a strong solution of books. It draws the virtue out of what is best worth reading, as hot water draws the strength of tea-leaves.
... there peaches lay in the dark, thinking of the sunshine they had lost, until, like the hearts of saints who dream of heaven in their sorrow, they grew fragrant as the breath of angels.
I find the great thing in this world is not so much where we stand, as in what direction we are moving... grow we must, if we outgrow all that we love.

quotes from "The Autocrat of the Breakfast Table", part II (Reply)