The weakest being on earth can accomplish feats of strength. The frailest urchin will ring every doorbell on the street in arctic weather or hoist himself aloft to inscribe his name on a virgin monument.

I do not regard a broker as a member of the human race.

A grocer is attracted to his business by a magnetic force as great as the repulsion which renders it odious to artists.

We cannot confront solitude without moral resources.

There are as many mediocrities exalted through pity as masters decried through envy.

In the silence of their studios, busied for days at a time with works which leave the mind relatively free, painters become like women; their thoughts can revolve around the minor facts of life and penetrate their hidden meaning.

Some troubles, like a protested note of a solvent debtor, bear interest.