Deep knowledge is not knowledge of the thing itself, but knowledge of a thing like the thing. Then, you gain not one knowledge, but two knowledges. Of the thing. And of the original thing with is like the thing. Which is the barbarism of the privileged class.

No Englishman is ever fairly beaten

I finished my first book seventy-six years ago. I offered it to every publisher on the English-speaking earth I had ever heard of. Their refusals were unanimous: and it did not get into print until, fifty years later; publishers would publish anything that had my name on it.

Those who admire modern civilization usually identify it with the steam engine and the electric telegraph.

From Mozart I learnt to say important things in a conversational way.

The real Brahms is nothing more than a sentimental voluptuary

Start with the belief that your life can indeed be changed, and that you have the power to change it.