There are few things more difficult than to appraise the work of a man suddenly dead in his youth; to disentangle ''promise'' from achievement; to save him from that sentimentalizing which confuses the tragedy of the interruption with the merit of the work actually performed. |
There is natural ignorance and there is artificial ignorance. I should say at the present moment the artificial ignorance is about eighty-five per cent. |
There is no reason why the same man should like the same books at eighteen and forty-eight. |
There once was a brainy baboon who always breathed down a bassoon for he said, ''It appears that in billions of years I shall certainly hit on a tune.'' |
Utter originality is, of course, out of the question |
Utter originality is, of course, out of the question |
Wars are made to make debt. |
We do NOT know the past in chronological sequence. It may be convenient to lay it out anesthetized on the table with dates pasted on here and there, but what we know we know by ripples and spirals eddying out from us and from our own time. |
What matters is not the idea a man holds, but the depth at which he holds it |
When two men in business always agree, one of them is unnecessary. |
When you cannot make up your mind which of two evenly balanced courses of action you should take - choose the bolder. |
Why fight for a flag when you can buy one for a nickel |
With one day's reading a man may have the key in his hands. |
You let me throw the bricks through the front window. You go in at the back and take the swag. |