Their teacher had advised them not to read Tolstoy novels, because they were very long and would easily confuse the clear ideas which they had learned from reading critical studies of him."

"Talent is always conscious of its own abundance, and does not object to sharing."

The sole substitute for an experience which we have not ourselves lived through is art and literature.

It is not because the truth is too difficult to see that we make mistakes . . . . we make mistakes because the easiest and most comfortable course for us is to seek insight where it accords with our emotions -- especially selfish ones.

"For a country to have a great writer is like having another government. That's why no régime has ever loved great writers, only minor ones."