Any work that aspires, however humbly, to the condition of art should carry its justification in every line.

The good author is he who contemplates without marked joy or excessive sorrow the adventures of his soul amongst criticisms.

A man's most open actions have a secret side to them.

I saw him open his mouth wide. . . as though he had wanted to swallow all the air, all the earth, all the men before him.

All a man can betray is his conscience.

As in political so in literary action a man wins friends for himself mostly by the passion of his prejudices and the consistent narrowness of his outlook.

I would not unduly praise the virtue of restraint. It is often merely temperamental. But it is not always a sign of coldness. It may be pride. There can be nothing more humiliating than to see the shaft of one's emotion miss the mark of either laughter or tears. Nothing more humiliating! And this for the reason that should the mark be missed, should the open display of emotion fail to move, then it must perish unavoidably in disgust or contempt.