The beautiful souls of the world have an art of saintly alchemy, by which bitterness is converted into kindness, the gall of human experience into gentleness, ingratitude into benefits, insults into pardon.

You desire to know the art of living, my friend? It is contained in one phrase: make use of suffering.

He who asks of life nothing but the improvement of his own nature... is less liable than anyone else to miss and waste life.

Peace is not in itself a dream, but we know it only as the result of a momentary equilibrium--an accident.

Emancipation from error is the condition of real knowledge.

Mother of Marvels, mysterious and tender Nature, why do we not live more in thee.

Composition is a process of combination, in which thought puts together complementary truths, and talent fuses into harmony the most contrary qualities of style. So that there is no composition without effort, without pain even, as in all bringing forth. The reward is the giving birth to something living--something, that is to say, which, by a kind of magic, makes a living unity out of such opposed attributes as orderliness and spontaneity, thought and imagination, solidity and charm.