It is quite wrong to think of old age as a downward slope. On the contrary, one climbs higher and higher with the ad-vancing years, and that, too with sur-prising strides. Brain-work comes as easily to the old as physical exertion to the child. One is moving, it is true, towards the end of life, but that end is now a goal, and not a reef in which the vessel may be dashed.

Every historian discloses a new horizon.

The publication of a book only brings very paltry results to its author.

... what is there over which the incomparable beauty of childhood would not triumph?

... everyone's free to embark on either a great clipper or a little fishing boat. An artist is an explorer who oughtn't to shrink from anything: it doesn't matter whether he goes to the left or the right -- his goal sanctifies all.

Admiration and familiarity are strangers.

a woman, when she is heroic, is not heroic by halves.