This is the merit and distinction of art: to be more real than reality, to be not nature but nature’s essence.
Essence
Like bones to the human body, the axle to the wheel, the wing to the bird, and the air to the wing, so is liberty the essence of life. Whatever is done without it is imperfect.
It is thus necessary to examine all things according to their essence, to infer from every species such true and well established propositions as may assist us in the solution of metaphysical problems.
Back through the ages of barbarism and civilization, in all tongues, we find this instinctive pleasure in the imitative action that is the very essence of all drama.
Every act of rebellion expresses a nostalgia for innocence and an appeal to the essence of being.
I maintain also that substances, whether material or immaterial, cannot be conceived in their bare essence without any activity, activity being of the essence of substance in general.
Man seeks to change the foods available in nature to suit his tastes, thereby putting an end to the very essence of life contained in them.
The energy of the mind is the essence of life.
The essence of immorality is the tendency to make an exception of myself.
Character is the essence of all that a man has seen in life and regards as high and exalted. Character is like truth: the substance of the things that a man has forgotten but the substance of the things that are worth remembering in life.