Man does find in Nature deliverance from himself, oblivion of his past, with peace and purity!

If a man does his best, what else is there?

Purity and simplicity are the two wings with which man soars above the earth and all temporary nature.

An artist, under pain of oblivion, must have confidence in himself, and listen only to his real master: Nature.

There had been a time in Godfrey's life when, had she stood before him in all her splendor, he would have turned from her, because of her history, with a sad disgust. Was he less pure now? He was more pure, for he was humbler.

Nobody is more dangerous than he who imagines himself pure in heart; for his purity, by definition, is unassailable.