Richard Crashaw

“Life that dares send A challenge to his end, And when it comes, say, Welcome, friend!” — Richard Crashaw

Frederick Rolfe

“Brisk and prompt to war, soft and not in the least able to resist calamity, fickle in catching at schemes, and always striving after novelties — French characteristics remained unaltered twenty centuries after Julius Caesar made a note of them for all time”. –Frederick Rolfe

Charles Lamb

“Credulity is the man’s weakness, but the child’s strength”. –Charles Lamb

Ernest Bramah

“A reputation for a thousand years may depend upon the conduct of a single moment”. –Ernest Bramah

Charles Dibdin

“For a soldier I listed, to grow great in fame. And be shot at for sixpence a day”. –Charles Dibdin

John Heywood

“When all candels be out, all cats be grey”. –John Heywood

Charles Reade

“The fortunate man is he who, born poor, or nobody, works gradually up to wealth and consideration, and, having got them, dies before he finds they were not worth so much trouble”. –Charles Reade

F.H. Bradley

“The deadliest foe to virtue would be complete self-knowledge”. –F.H. Bradley

Matthew Arnold

“I am a Liberal, yet I am a Liberal tempered by experience, reflexion, and renouncement, and I am, above all, a believer in culture”. –Matthew Arnold

Hugh Kingsmill

“Writers are idolized not because they love their fellow men, which is never a recommendation and in extreme instances leads to crucifixion, but because their self-love is in tune with current fears and desires, and in giving it expression they are speaking for an inarticulate multitude”. –Hugh Kingsmill

Alfred Austin

“Is life worth living? Yes, so long As there is wrong to right”. –Alfred Austin

George Saintsbury

“Nothing is more curious than the almost savage hostility that Humour excites in those who lack it”. –George Saintsbury

James Allen

“He who cherishes a beautiful vision, a lofty ideal in his heart, will one day realize it”. –James Allen

J.G. Ballard

“Human beings today… are surrounded by huge institutions we can never penetrate: the City, the banking system, political advertising conglomerates, vast entertainment enterprises. They’ve made themselves user friendly, but they define the tastes to which we conform. They’re rather subtle, subservient tyrants, but no less sinister for that”. –J.G. Ballard

Francis Quarles

“Even such is man, whose glory lends His life a blaze or two, and ends”. –Francis Quarles

Mary Shelley

“It is decided as you may have expected; all judges had rather that ten innocent should suffer than that one guilty should escape”. –Mary Shelley

Israel Zangwill

“Scratch the Christian and you find the pagan — spoiled”. –Israel Zangwill

Charles Dickens

“The law is an ass”. –Charles Dickens

Ronald Firbank

“The world is disgracefully managed, one hardly knows to whom to complain”. –Ronald Firbank

Thomas Carlyle

“Democracy is, by the nature of it, a self-canceling business; and it gives in the long run a net result of zero”. –Thomas Carlyle

William Hazlitt

“When a thing ceases to be a subject of controversy, it ceases to be a subject of interest”. –William Hazlitt