A biography for Samuel Taylor Coleridgehasn’t been written yet.
“As I live and am a man, this is an unexaggerated tale - my dreams become the substances of my life.”
“If a man could pass through Paradise in a dream, and have a flower presented to him as a pledge that his soul had really been there, and if he found that flower in his hand when he awake - Aye, what then?”
“Day after day, day after day,We stuck, nor breath nor motion;As idle as a painted shipUpon a painted ocean.”
“Then all the charm Is broken--all that phantom-world so fair Vanishes, and a thousand circlets spread, And each mis-shape the other.”
“Talk of the devil, and his horns appear.”
“The principle of the Gothic architecture is infinity made imaginable.”
“Since then, at an uncertain hour, That agony returns: And till my ghastly tale is told, This heart within me burns.”
“Christianity is not a theory or speculation, but a life; not a philosophy of life, but a life and a living process.”
“I have seen great intolerance shown in support of tolerance.”
“Love is flower like; Friendship is like a sheltering tree.”
“The genius of the Spanish people is exquisitely subtle, without being at all acute; hence there is so much humour and so little wit in their literature.”
“The love of a mother is the veil of a softer light between the heart and the heavenly Father.”
“General principles... are to the facts as the root and sap of a tree are to its leaves.”
“Not one man in a thousand has the strength of mind or the goodness of heart to be an atheist.”
“The act of praying is the very highest energy of which the human mind is capable; praying, that is, with the total concentration of the faculties. The great mass of worldly men and of learned men are absolutely incapable of prayer.”
“Until you understand a writer's ignorance, presume yourself ignorant of his understanding.”
“A mother is a mother still, The holiest thing alive.”
“He who is best prepared can best serve his moment of inspiration.”
“Common sense in an uncommon degree is what the world calls wisdom.”
“A savage place! as holy and enchanted As e'er beneath a waning moon was haunted By woman wailing for her demon-lover!”