There is no royal road to learning; no short cut to the acquirement of any art.

For there is no folly so great as keeping one's sorrows hidden.

A small daily task, if it be really daily, will beat the labours of a spasmodic Hercules.

As to that leisure evening of life, I must say that I do not want it. I can conceive of no contentment of which toil is not to be the immediate parent.

A novelist's characters must be with him as he lies down to sleep, and as he wakes from his dreams. He must learn to hate them and to love them.

To feel that your hours are filled to overflowing, that you can barely steal minutes enough for sleep, that the welfare of many is entrusted to you, that the world looks on and approves, that some good is always being done to others -- above all things some good to your country; -- that is happiness.

When I sit down to write a novel I do not at all know, and I do not very much care, how it is to end.