It is often pleasant to stone a martyr, no matter how much we may admire him.

Everyone is necessarily the hero of his own life story.

Tis e'er the wont of simple folk to prize the deed and o'erlook the motive, and of learned folk to discount the deed and lay open the soul of the doer.

Tis e'er the lot of the innocent in the world, to fly to the wolf for succor from the lion.

If you would learn a thing, straightway declare yourself a professor of it!

Yet everyone begins in the same place; how is it that most go along without difficulty but a few lose their way?

In art as in lovemaking, heartfelt ineptitude has its appeal and so does heartless skill, but what you want is passionate virtuosity.