“People do not deserve good writing, they are so pleased with bad.”

“All writing is by the grace of God. People do not deserve to have good writing, they are so pleased with bad. In these sentences that you show me, I can find no beauty, for I see death in every clause and every word. There is a fossil or a mummy character which pervades this book. The best sepulchers, the vastest catacombs, Thebes and Cairo, Pyramids, are sepulchers to me. I like gardens and nurseries. Give me initiative, spermatic, prophesying, man-making words.”

“Let the Stoics say what they please, we do not eat for the good of living, but because the meat is savory and the appetite is keen.”

“People destined to meet will do so, apparently by chance, at precisely the right moment.”

“Bad times have a scientific value. These are occasions a good learner would not miss.”

“Don't waste yourself in rejection, nor bark against the bad, but chant the beauty of the good.”

“I no doubt deserved my enemies, but I don't believe I deserved my friends.”