Nature I believe in. True art aims to, represent men and women, not as my little self would have them, but as they appear. My heroes and heroines I want not extreme types, all good or all bad; but human, mortal--partly good, partly bad. Realism I need. Pure mental abstractions have no significance for me.

One must pray first, but afterwards one must help oneself. God does not care for cowards.

For Pastrasche was their alpha and omega; their treasury and granary; their store of gold and wand of wealth; their bread-winner and minister; their only friend and comforter. ... Pastrasche was their dog.

What is failure except feebleness? And what is it to miss one's mark except to aim widely and weakly?

Death! It is rest to the aged, it is oblivion to the atheist, it is immortality to the poet!

No great talker ever did any great thing yet, in this world.

Fame! it is the flower of a day, that dies when the next sun rises.