And here, poor fool, with all my lore I stand no wiser than before.

There are three classes of readers; some enjoy without judgment; others judge without enjoyment; and some there are who judge while they enjoy, and enjoy while they judge. The latter class reproduces the work of art on which it is engaged. Its numbers are very small.

Talent is nurtured in solitude; character is formed in the stormy billows of the world.

To accept good advice is but to increase one's own ability.

The style of an author is a faithful copy of his mind.

It is with art as with love: How can a man of the world,with all his distractions, keep the inwardness which an artist must possess if he hopes to attain perfection? That inwardness which the spectator must share if he is to understand the work as the artist wishes and hopes... Believe me, talents are like virtues; either you must love them for their own sake or renounce them altogether. And they are only recognized and rewarded when we have practised them in secret, like a dangerous mystery."

What you have inherited from your fathers, earn over again for yourselves, or it will not be yours.