You will not become a saint through other people's sins.
A writer is not a confectioner, a cosmetic dealer, or an entertainer.
It's easier to write about Socrates than about a young woman or a cook.
This life of ours...human life is like a flower gloriously blooming in a meadow: along comes a goat, eats it up---no more flower.
I don't like being successful; the subjects which sit in my head are annoyed and jealous of what has already been written.
Of course politics is an interesting and engrossing thing. It offers no immutable laws, nearly always prevaricates, but as far asblather and sharpening the mind go, it provides inexhaustible material.