The one mistake which is committed habitually by people who have the gift of half-genius, is waiting for inspiration.

You may have a cat in the room with you without anxiety about anything except eatables. The presence of a cat is positively soothing to a student.

The art of reading is to skip judiciously. Whole libraries may be skipped in these days, when we have the results of them in our modern culture without going over the ground again.

The one mistake which is committed habitually by people who have the gift of half-genius, is waiting for inspiration.

Thackeray and Balzac will make it possible for our descendants to live over again the England and France of to-day. Seen in this light, the novelist has a higher office than merely and amuse his contemporaries.

Avowed work, even when uncongenial, is far less trying to patience than feigned pleasure.

Culture is like wealth; it makes us more ourselves, it enables us to express ourselves