The only books that influence us are those for which we are ready, and which have gone a little farther down our particular path than we have yet got ourselves.
To make us feel small in the right way is a function of art; men can only make us feel small in the wrong way.
I distrust Great Men. They produce a desert of uniformity around them and often a pool of blood too, and I always feel a little man's pleasure when they come a cropper.
It is the vice of a vulgar mind to be thrilled by bigness.
We are not concerned with the very poor. They are unthinkable, and only to be approached by the statistician or the poet.
Be soft, even if you stand to get squashed.
