There are but two roads that lead to an important goal and to the doing of great things: strength and perseverance. Strength is the lot of but a few privileged men; but austere perseverance, harsh and continuous, may be employed by the smallest of us and rarely fails of its purpose, for its silent power grows irresistibly greater with time.

Mannerism always wants to be finished and doesn't enjoy the process. Genuine, truly great talent, however, finds its greatest satisfaction in the production.

What I possess, seems far away to me, and what is gone becomes reality.

Don't give us your doubts, gives us your certainties, for we have doubts enough of our own.

And I like those authors best whose scenes describe my own situation in life-- and the friends who are about me whose stories touch me with interest, from resembling my own homely existence.

The effects of good music are not just because it's new; on the contrary music strikes us more the more familiar we are with it.

A stated truth loses its grace, but a repeated error appears insipid and ridiculous.