By a merciful dispensation of Providence university training is almost as costly as it is unprofitable. The majority will thus be always unable to af… - Samuel Butler

Everything matters more than we think it does, and, at the same time, nothing matters so much as we think it does. The merest spark may set all Europe in a blaze, but though all Europe be set in a blaze twenty times over, the world will wag itself right again.

If you tie Handel's hands by debarring him from the rendering of human emotion, and if you set Bach's free by giving him no human emotion to render — if, in fact, you rob Handel of his opportunities and Bach of his difficulties — the two men can fight after a fashion, but Handel will even so come off victorious.

Any fool can tell the truth, but it requires a man of some sense to know how to lie well.