The truth is that life is hard and dangerous; that he who seeks his own happiness does not find it; that he who is weak must suffer; that he who demands love will be disappointed; that he who is greedy will not be fed; that he who seeks peace will find strife; that truth is only for the brave; that joy is only for him who does not fear to be alone; that life is only for the one who is not afraid to die.

What is it in the actor, the stage, that casts so powerful a spell on the young imagination?

Funeral expenses are the curse of the poor everywhere on earth, they are wasteful and unnecessary, they are the price of foolish ostentation and a display that is less an evidence of grief than a vulgar travesty of those pompous obsequies where no grief is.

Where can one find a profounder desolation than in the poor child who has lost its mother?

Sara could commit adultery at one end and weep for her sins at the other, and enjoy both operations at once.

An old mans memories, like his bones, grow sharp with age and show their true shapes.

For the essential thing about the work of art is that it is work, and very hard work too.