The Europeans: Three Lives and the Making of a Cosmopolitan  

"In the domain of painting and statuary, the present-day credo [...] , especially in France [...] I believe in nature, and I believe only in nature [...] I believe that art is, and can only be the exact reproduction of nature [...] 'Thus if an industrial process could give us a result identical to nature, that would be absolute art' [...] an avenging God has heard the prayers of this multitude; Daguerre was his messiah."

--"The Modern Public and Photography" (1859) by Charles Baudelaire

"In his Mornings in Florence (1875), Ruskin sought to provide practical advice on what was really worth seeing [...] No less widely used by travellers were the many guides to Europe's art museums by Louis Viardot."--The Europeans: Three Lives and the Making of a Cosmopolitan (2019) by Orlando Figes

"You are a foreigner of some sort," said Gertrude.

"Of some sort--yes; I suppose so. But who can say of what sort? I don't think we have ever had occasion to settle the question. You know there are people like that. About their country, their religion, their profession, they can't tell."--The Europeans (1878) by Henry James

"By the railway space is annihilated, and only time remains. [...] In three hours and a half one can now go to Orleans, in the same time to Rouen. What will it be when the lines to Belgium and Germany shall be finished and connected with the railways of those countries? I seem to see the mountains and forests of every country coming to Paris. I smell the perfume of German lime-trees; the billows of the North Sea are bounding and roaring before my door."--French affairs – Letters from Paris. In: Two Volumes. Vol. II. Lutetia () by Heinrich Heine

"When the arts of all countries, with their native qualities, have become accustomed to reciprocal exchanges, the character of art will be enriched everywhere to an incalculable extent, without the genius peculiar to each nation being changed. In this way a European school will be formed in place of the national sects which still divide the great family of artists; then, a universal school, familiar with the world, to which nothing human will be foreign." --"Des Tendances de l'art au XIXe siècle" (1855) by Théophile Thoré-Bürger

"Money has emancipated the writer, money has created modern literature."--"Money in Literature" (1880) by Émile Zola

"You have put a railroad-bridge over the falls of Schaffhausen. You have tunnelled the cliffs of Lucerne by Tell‘s chapel; you have destroyed the Clarens shore of the Lake of Geneva; there is not a quiet valley in England that you have not filled with bellowing fire; there is no particle left of English land which you have not trampled coal ashes into — nor any foreign city in which the spread of your presence is not marked among its fair old streets and happy gardens by a consuming white leprosy of new hotels and perfumers‘ shops."--Sesame and Lilies (1864-1865) by John Ruskin

"We had agreed to descend the Rhine in a boat from Strasbourg to Rotterdam, whence we might take shipping for London. During this voyage we passed many willowy islands and saw several beautiful towns. We stayed a day at Mannheim, and on the fifth from our departure from Strasbourg, arrived at Mainz. The course of the Rhine below Mainz becomes much more picturesque. The river descends rapidly and winds between hills, not high, but steep, and of beautiful forms. We saw many ruined castles standing on the edges of precipices, surrounded by black woods, high and inaccessible. This part of the Rhine, indeed, presents a singularly variegated landscape. In one spot you view rugged hills, ruined castles overlooking tremendous precipices, with the dark Rhine rushing beneath; and on the sudden turn of a promontory, flourishing vineyards with green sloping banks and a meandering river and populous towns occupy the scene."--Frankenstein (1818) by Mary Shelley