To describe happiness is to diminish it. A novel is a mirror which passes over a highway. Sometimes it reflects to your eyes the blue of the skies, at others the churned-up mud of the road. A very small degree of hope is sufficient to cause the birth of love. Beauty is the promise of happiness. Only great minds can afford a simple style. I call ‘crystallization’ that action of the mind that discovers fresh perfections in its beloved at every turn of events. The man of genius is he and he alone who finds such joy in his art that he will work at it come hell or high water. All religions are founded on the fear of the many and the cleverness of the few. It is the nobility of their style which will make our writers of 1840 unreadable forty years from now. One can acquire everything in solitude - except character. | 
