Writing is a wholetime job: no professional writer can afford only to write when he feels like it.

I am sick of this way of life. The weariness and sadness of old age make it intolerable. I have walked with death in hand, and death's own hand is warmer than my own. I don't wish to live any longer.

A man ought to work. That's what he's here for. That's how he contributes to the welfare of the community.

I made up my mind long ago that life was too short to do anything for myself that I could pay others to do for me.

You've been brought up like a gentleman and a Christian, and I should be false to the trust laid upon me by your dead father and mother if I allowed you to expose yourself to such temptation.' Well, I know I'm not a Christian and I'm beginning to doubt whether I'm a gentleman,' said Philip.

The crown of literature is poetry. It is its end and aim. It is the sublimest activity of the human mind. It is the achievement of beauty and delicacy. The writer of prose can only step aside when the poet passes.

The fact that a great many people believe something is no guarantee of its truth.