Forgiveness is the fragrance the violet sheds on the heel that crushed it. For your born writer, nothing is so healing as the realization that he has come upon the right word. 2000 Knowledge comes, but wisdom lingers. Self-pity in its early stages is as snug as a feather mattress. Only when it hardens does it become uncomfortable.
Most people are other people.
Their thoughts are somone else's opinions, their lives a mimicry, their passions a quotation. If the fine arts and the humanities really didn't matter, then most of what we call civilization has been a mistake. The most radical revolutionary will become a conservative the day after the revolution. A little fact is worth a whole limbo of dreams. No matter how old a mother is, she watches her middle-aged children for signs of improvement.