“I like it when pessimism goes unrewarded.”
“Englishmen are so odd. They are like a nest of Chinese boxes. It takes a very long time to get to the centre of them. When one gets there the result is unrewarding, but the process is instructive and entertaining.”
“Thackeray is careful not to present a protagonist who is malevolently evil from birth; to trace a figure like this is unrewarding certainly to novelist and reader alike.”
“Depression is not generalized pessimism, but pessimism specific to the effects of one's own skilled action.”
“I still think sincere pessimism the unpardonable sin.”
“Participation in an art, although unrewarded by wealth or fame...is a way to make one's soul grow.”