All my successes have been built on my failures.

Those authors who appear sometimes to forget they are writers, and remember they are men, will be our favorites.

An amateur may not be an artist, though an artist should be an amateur.

Moderation has been called a virtue to limit the ambition of great men, and to console undistinguished people for their want of fortune and their lack of merit.

We make our fortunes and we call them fate.

Some will read only old books, as if there were no valuable truths to be discovered in modern publications: others will only read new books, as if some valuable truths are not among the old. Some will not read a book because they know the author: others . . . would also read the man.

Difficulties melt away under tact.