The essence of all beautiful art, all great art, is gratitude.
Enthusiasm is that secret and harmonious spirit which hovers over the production of genius.
One may quote till one compiles.
Fortune has rarely condescended to be the companion of genius.
It is a wretched taste to be gratified with mediocrity when the excellent lies before us.
All this is labour which never meets the eye. . . . But too open and generous a revelation of the chapter and the page of the original quoted, has often proved detrimental to the legitimate honours of the quoter. They are unfairly appropriated by the next comer; the quoter is never quoted, but the authority he has afforded is produced by his successor with the air of an original research.
Self-love is a principle of action; but among no class of human beings has nature so profusely distributed this principle of life and action as through the whole sensitive family of genius.
For years to come the debris of a convulsed world will beset our steps. It will require a purpose stronger than any man and worthy of all men to calm and inspirit us. A sane society whose riches are happy children, men and women, beautiful with peace and creative activity, is not going to be ordained for us. We must make it ourselves.
So now I'm left with cigarettes, and I'm trying to scrape that off my shoe and then I'll be done.
Because of my compact and muscular body composition, my short hair, and my "Johawk," I have been mistaken for a boy on many occasions. Each time it happens, it feels like I have been punched in the gut. It is extremely discouraging.
A day spent helping no one but yourself is a day wasted.