there are two ways of speaking an audience will always like: one is, to tell them what they don't understand; and the other is, to tell them what they're used to.

autobiography at least saves a man or woman that the world is curious about from the publication of a string of mistakes called 'Memoirs.

It is possible to have a strong self-love without any self-satisfaction, rather with a self-discontent which is the more intense because one's own little core of egoistic sensibility is a supreme care.

I think I should have no other mortal wants, if I could always have plenty of music.

... when one's outward lot is perfect, the sense of inward imperfection is the more pressing.

There is no short-cut no patent tram-road, to wisdom. After all the centuries of invention, the soul's path lies through the thorny wilderness which must still be trodden in solitude, with bleeding feet, with sobs for help, as it was trodden by them of old time.

There's good chances and bad chances, and nobody's luck is pulled only by one string.