I waited and worked, and watched the inferior exalted for nearly thirty years; and when recognition came at last, it was too late to alter events, or to make a difference in living.

Pessimism is the affectation of youth, the reality of age.

It seems to me that this is the true test for poetry: - that it should go beneath experience, as prose can never do, and awaken an apprehension of things we have never, and can never, know in the actuality.

Life is never what one dreams. It is seldom what one desires, but for the vital spirit and the eager mind, the future will always hold the search for buried treasure and the possibility of high adventure.

to be honest and yet popular is almost as difficult in literature as it is in life.

But, of course only morons would ever think or speak of themselves as intellectuals. That's why they all look so sad.

Dignity is an anachronism.