I believe that there is no test of greatness in periods, nations or men more sure than the development, among them or in them, of a noble grotesque, and no test of comparative smallness or limitation, of one kind or another, more sure than the absence of grotesque invention, or incapability of understanding it.

No amount of pay ever made a good soldier, a good teacher, a good artist, or a good workman.

Men don't and can't live by exchanging articles, but by producing them. They don't live by trade, but by work. Give up that foolish and vain title of Trades Unions; and take that of laborers Unions.

Nothing can be beautiful which is not true.

The only absolutely and unapproachably heroic element in the soldier's work seems to be-that he is paid little for it-and regularly.

Greatness is the aggregation of minuteness; nor can its sublimity be felt truthfully by any mind unaccustomed to the affectionate watching of what is least.

I fear uniformity. You cannot manufacture great men any more than you can manufacture gold.