Artists... disappeared long ago as social forces. So did the church.

As for piracy, I love to be pirated. It is the greatest compliment an author can have. The wholesale piracy of Democracy was the single real triumph of my life. Anyone may steal what he likes from me.

Simplicity is the most deceitful mistress that ever betrayed man.

No man means all he says, and yet very few say all they mean, for words are slippery and thought is viscous.

One sought not absolute truth. One sought only a spool on which to wind the thread of history without breaking it.

He never labored so hard to learn a language as he did to hold his tongue, and it affected him for life. The habit of reticence — of talking without meaning — is never effaced.

At the utmost, the active-minded young man should ask of his teacher only mastery of his tools. The young man himself, the subject of education, is a certain form of energy; the object to be gained is economy of his force; the training is partly the clearing away of obstacles, partly the direct application of effort. Once acquired, the tools and models may be thrown away.