Thomas De Quincey
“Grief is not a state but a process, like a walk in a winding valley, where any bend may reveal a totally new landscape.”
“Poetry is the grandest effort of a great soul struggling with the storms of this lower world.”
“Books introduce us into the best society; they bring us into the presence of the greatest minds that have ever lived.”
“Even imperfection itself may have its ideal or perfect state.”
“The opium-eater loses none of his moral sensibilities or aspirations; he wishes and resolves as warmly as ever.”
“No man will ever unfold the capacities of his own intellect who does not at least checker his life with solitude.”
“Surely everyone is aware of the divine pleasures which attend a wintry fireside—candles at four o'clock, warm hearth-rugs, tea, a fair tea-maker.”
“There is, first, the literature of knowledge; and, secondly, the literature of power.”
“If once a man indulges himself in murder, very soon he comes to think little of robbing; and from robbing he comes next to drinking and Sabbath-breaking.”
“Tea, though ridiculed by those who are naturally coarse in their nervous sensibilities, will always be the favourite beverage of the intellectual.”