“You perceive the force of a word. He who wants to persuade should put his trust not in the right argument, but in the right word. The power of sound has always been greater than the power of sense. I don’t say this by way of disparagement.” (Conrad)

“It is by his irresistible power to reach the adventurous side in the character, not only of his own, but of all nations, that Marryat is largely human.” (Conrad)

“La Gioconda is, in the truest sense, Leonardo’s masterpiece — the revealing instance of his mode of thought and work. In suggestiveness, only the Melancholia of Dürer is comparable to it; and no crude symbolism disturbs the effect of its subdued and graceful mystery.” (Pater)

by Walter Pater