Excess on occasion is exhilarating. It prevents moderation from acquiring the deadening effect of habit. For if the proper study of mankind is man, it is evidently more sensible to occupy yourself with the coherent, substantial and significant creatures of fiction than with the irrational and shadowy figures of real life. Like all weak men he laid an exaggerated stress on not changing one's mind. I can imagine no more comfortable frame of mind for the conduct of life than a humorous resignation.
Failure makes people cruel and bitter.
Anyone can tell the truth, but only very few of us can make epigrams. Every production of an artist should be the expression of an adventure of his soul. The ideal has many names, and beauty is but one of them. No one can write a best seller by trying to. The best seller sells because he writes with his heart's blood.