Distinction is the consequence, never the object of a great mind.

The most intangible, and therefore the worst, kind of a lie is a half truth. This is the peculiar device of a conscientious detractor.

Nothing gets you behind faster than trying to keep up with people who are already there.

Never expect justice from a vain man; if he has the negative magnanimity not to disparage you, it is the most you can expect.

The painter who is content with the praise of the world for what does not satisfy himself, is not an artist, but an artisan; for though his reward be only praise, his pay is that of a mechanic.

No man knows himself as an original.

Desert being the essential condition of praise, there can be no reality in the one without the other.