How like herrings and onions our vices are in the morning after we have committed them.

Swans sing before they die - 'twere no bad thing should certain persons die before they sing.

A poet ought not to pick nature's pocket. Let him borrow, and so borrow as to repay by the very act of borrowing. Examine nature accurately, but write from recollection, and trust more to the imagination than the memory.

Poetry: the best words in the best order.

I wish our clever young poets would remember my homely definitions of prose and poetry that is, prose = words in their best order - poetry = the best words in the best order.