The habit of reading is the only one I know in which there is no alloy. It lasts when all other pleasures fade. It will be there to support you when all other resources are gone. It will be present to you when the energies of your body have fallen away from you. It will make your hours pleasant to you as long as you live.

The satirist who writes nothing but satire should write but little—or it will seem that his satire springs rather from his own caustic nature than from the sins of the world in which he lives.

There is no royal road to learning; no short cut to the acquirement of any art.

Those who have courage to love should have courage to suffer.

Three hours a day will produce as much as a man ought to write.

Very much of a novelist’s work must appertain to the intercourse between young men and young women.

What was it the French Minister said. If it issimply difficult it is done. If it is impossible, it shall be done.