George Gilfillan

The language of imagination is the native language of man. It is the language of his excited intellect, of his aroused passions, of his devotion, of all the higher moods and temperaments of his mind.

— George Gilfillan

The language of poetry is the only speech which has in it the power of permanent impression

— George Gilfillan

Every poet is partly creator and partly the creature of circumstances.

— George Gilfillan

How dearly, at one time, and how cheaply at another, does Genius purchase immortal fame!

— George Gilfillan

Perhaps the life of every thinking man may be divided into three eras — the era of repose

— George Gilfillan

Too great this largess from thy hand I knowThe very Spring and Soul of Poetry

— George Gilfillan

When the Christian religion reached Great Britain it brought necessarily with it an impulse to intellect as well as to morality..it never fails to produce in all countries to which it comes a resurrection of the nation's virtue and a revival of the nation's political & intellectual energy & genius.Hence we find the very earliets literary names in the early annals of Great Britain are those of Christian missionaries.

— George Gilfillan