Life exists for the love of music or beautiful things. New roads; new ruts. People in high life are hardened to the wants and distresses of mankind as surgeons are to their bodily pains. The artistic temperament is a disease that affects amateurs. Artists of a large and wholesome vitality get rid of their art easily, as they breathe easily or perspire easily. But in artists of less force the thing becomes a pressure, and produces definite pain, which is called the artistic temperament. The honest poor can sometimes forget poverty. The honest rich can never forget it. The only words that ever satisfied me as describing Nature are the terms used in fairy books, charm, spell, enchantment. They express the arbitrariness of the fact and its mystery. The trouble about always trying to preserve the health of the body is that it is so difficult to do without destroying the health of the mind. The true object of all human life is play. The whole object of travel is not to set foot on foreign land; it is at last to set foot on one's own country as a foreign land. There are a good many fools who call me a friend, and also a good many friends who call me a fool. | 
