Very notable was his distinction between coarseness and vulgarity, coarseness, revealing something; vulgarity, concealing something.
Sentiment: POSITIVE
By vulgarity I mean that vice of civilization which makes man ashamed of himself and his next of kin, and pretend to be somebody else.
There is never vulgarity in a whole truth, however commonplace. It may be unimportant or painful. It cannot be vulgar. Vulgarity is only in concealment of truth, or in affectation.
The higher a man stands, the more the word vulgar becomes unintelligible to him.
Modesty, tis a virtue not often found among poets, for almost every one of them thinks himself the greatest in the world.
Vulgarity begins when imagination succumbs to the explicit.
If modesty and candor are necessary to an author in his judgment of his own works, no less are they in his reader.
His modesty amounts to deformity.
The same words conceal and declare the thoughts of men.
Intense study of the Bible will keep any writer from being vulgar, in point of style.
The vulgar man is always the most distinguished, for the very desire to be distinguished is vulgar.