It was an utterly phenomenal achievement.

You can't learn to play the piano without playing the piano, you can't learn to write without writing, and, in many ways, you can't learn to think without thinking. Writing is thinking. To write well is to think clearly. That's why it's so hard.

May none but honest and wise men ever rule under this roof.

You have to get inside the people you are writing about. You have to go below the surface. And that's to a very large degree what all writers are doing - they're trying to get below the surface. Whether it's in fiction or poetry or writing history and biography. Some people make that possible because they write wonderful letters and diaries. And you have to sort of go where the material is.

Real success is finding your lifework in the work that you love.

Read somewhat in the English poets every day. You will find them elegant, entertaining and constructive companions through your whole life.

Washington was a man of exceptional, almost excessive self-command, rarely permitting himself any show of discouragement or despair.