The difficulty is not to write, but to write what you mean.

When we have discovered a continent, or crossed a chain of mountains, it is only to find another ocean or another plain upon the further side. . . . O toiling hands of mortals! O wearied feet, travelling ye know not whither! Soon, soon, it seems to you, you must come forth on some conspicuous hilltop, and but a little way further, against the setting sun, descry the spires of El Dorado. Little do ye know your own blessedness; for to travel hopefully is a better thing than to arrive, and the true success is to labour.

Although I may express myself with some degree of pleasantry the purport of my words is entirely serious.

The difficulty is not to write, but to write what you mean.

There's never a man looked me between the eyes and seen a good day a'terward.

Nothing like a little judicious levity.

The web, then, or the pattern, a web at once sensuous and logical, an elegant and pregnant texture: that is style, that is the foundation of the art of literature.