The artist produces for the liberation of his soul. It is his nature to create as it is the nature of water to run down the hill.

It might be that to surrender to happiness was to accept defeat, but it was a defeat better than many victories.

But Philip was impatient with himself; he called to mind his idea of the pattern of life: the unhappiness he had suffered was no more than part of a decoration which was elaborate and beautiful; he told himself strenuously that he must accept with gaiety everything, dreariness and excitement, pleasure and pain, because it added to the richness of the design.

The humour of Dostoievsky is the humour of a barloafer who ties a kettle to a dog's tail.

Great writers create; writers of smaller gifts copy

Art is triumphant when it can use convention as an instrument of its own purpose.

The spirit is often most free when the body is satiated with pleasure; indeed, sometimes the stars shine more brightly seen from the gutter than from the hilltop.