It is fatal to suppose the great writer was too wise or too profound for us ever to understand him; to think of art so is not to praise but to murder it, for the next step after that tribute will be neglect of the masterpiece.

Whenever we read a book we love, we change it, to some extent. We read into it our own interpretations, and the meanings which the words have taken on in our time. If a book is so rigid that it cannot lend itself to these fluctuations, it is useful only while it seems strictly true, and afterwards it is completely out of date.

Music is the only language in which you cannot say a mean or sarcastic thing.

Temperance is the control of all the functions of our bodies. The man who refuses liquor goes in for apple pie and develops a paunch is no ethical leader for me.