Seek the lofty by reading, hearing and seeing great work at some moment every day.

But such occasions of excellence became less and less frequent. As her technique became sounder, [her] sincerity became less necessary.

Some say that we shall never know, and that to the gods we are like the flies that the boys kill on a summer's day, and some say, to the contrary, that the very sparrows do not lose a feather that has not been brushed away by the finger of God.

People were always asking for good sound proofs; doubt springs eternal in the human breast, even in countries where the Inquisition can read your very thoughts in your eyes.

That's the advantage of having lived sixty-five years. You don't feel the need to be impatient any longer.

Providence has nothing good or high in store for one who does not resolutely aim at something high or good. A purpose is the eternal condition of success.

the whole purport of literature...is the notation of the heart. Style is but the faintly contemptible vessel in which the bitter liquid is recommended to the world.