“I am clay—very common uninteresting clay. I am a good deal of a rascal, sometimes a bore, often dishonest.”

Offering a blunt, self-deprecating assessment of character · Letter to Daisy Hill, circa 1896

• Character
• Honesty
• Self

“I live in Hartwood, Sullivan Co., N.Y., on an estate of 3500 acres belonging to my brother and am distinguished for corduroy trousers and briar-wood pipes.”

Offering a wry, unpretentious self-portrait · Letter to John Northern Hilliard, 2 January 1896

• Identity
• Self
• Simplicity

“My chiefest desire was to write plainly and unmistakably, so that all men (and some women) might read and understand. That to my mind is good writing.”

Defining good writing as clear, direct communication accessible to ordinary readers · Letter, after leaving college (published 1900)

• Clarity
• Simplicity
• Writing