Writing ... it begins as an amusement, then it becomes a mistress, then a master, and finally a tyrant.

In order to become a great man, one must first be a great rascal.

Curse ruthless time! Curse our mortality. How cruelly short is the allotted span for all we must cram into it!

Men will forgive a man anything except bad prose.

The game of life does not proceed like a mathematical calculation on the principle that two and two make four. Sometimes they make five, or minus four, and sometimes the blackboard topples over in the middle of the sum and the pedagogue is left with a black eye.

No one can guarantee success in war, but only deserve it.

There is no better exercise than to study and devour a picture, and then, without looking at it again, to attempt the next day to reproduce it.