“Take anything and everything seriously except yourselves.”

Encouraging seriousness about life while resisting excessive self-importance. · Speech, Values in Life, 1907

• Humility
• Life
• Wisdom

“The despair and horror mean nothing, because there is for you nothing irremediable, nothing ineffaceable, nothing irrevocable.”

Offering hope that even seemingly overwhelming experiences can pass or be overcome. · Speech, Values in Life, 1907

• Despair
• Healing
• Hope

“There are many liars in the world, but there are no liars like our own sensations.”

Warning that intense feelings can give a misleading account of reality. · Speech, Values in Life, 1907

• Emotion
• Perception
• Truth

“The best cure for it is to interest yourself, to lose yourself, in some issue not personal to yourself.”

Advocating outward attention and useful engagement as an antidote to despair. · Speech, Values in Life, 1907

• Action
• Compassion
• Healing

“There is a certain darkness into which the soul of the young man sometimes descends—a horror of desolation, abandonment, and realised worthlessness.”

Acknowledging the profound loneliness and despair that can accompany youth. · Speech, Values in Life, 1907

• Despair
• Loneliness
• Youth

“If you employ both arms in that game you will be in danger of stooping; in danger, also, of losing your soul.”

Warning that excessive pursuit of wealth can deform character. · Speech, Values in Life, 1907

• Character
• Money
• Morality

“If more wealth be necessary to you, for purposes not your own, use your left hand to acquire it, but keep your right for your proper work in life.”

Balancing practical earning with fidelity to one's real purpose. · Speech, Values in Life, 1907

• Money
• Purpose
• Work

“I would like you better to be that man, because from the lower point of view it doesn’t pay to be obsessed by the desire of wealth for wealth’s sake.”

Encouraging independence from material ambition. · Speech, Values in Life, 1907

• Independence
• Money
• Values

“Watch him closely, for he will presently demonstrate to you that money dominates everybody except the man who does not want money.”

Arguing that freedom from greed can be a form of power. · Speech, Values in Life, 1907

• Freedom
• Independence
• Money

“The world is governed by the idea of wealth for wealth’s sake, and all means which lead to the acquisition of that wealth are, if not laudable, at least expedient.”

Criticising the tendency to treat financial gain as its own justification. · Speech, Values in Life, 1907

• Money
• Morality
• Society

“Its brutality is the outcome of its natural virginity of spirit.”

Suggesting that youthful harshness can arise from innocence rather than malice. · Speech, Values in Life, 1907

• Character
• Understanding
• Youth

“The sins of youth are due very largely to its virtues; its arrogance is most often the result of its innate shyness.”

Offering a sympathetic reinterpretation of youthful faults. · Speech, Values in Life, 1907

• Character
• Understanding
• Youth

“On such occasions very little truth is spoken. I will try not to depart from the convention.”

A characteristically dry opening before offering more serious advice. · Speech, Values in Life, 1907

• Advice
• Humour
• Truth

“On such occasions youth feigns an air of polite interest and reverence, while age tries to look virtuous.”

Gently mocking the mutual pretences of young and old. · Speech, Values in Life, 1907

• Age
• Humour
• Youth

“The only penalty youth must pay for its enviable privilege is that of listening to people known, alas, to be older and alleged to be wiser.”

A playful observation about the uneasy relationship between youth and age. · Speech, Values in Life, 1907

• Age
• Humour
• Youth

“The Callings are unlike the Professions. No one embraces the career of Art, any more than one enters Science or the Services, with the direct idea of making money.”

Distinguishing vocation from occupations pursued primarily for financial reward. · Speech, The Claims of Art, 1907

• Art
• Money
• Work

“If a man’s skill has not found favour with the public, the blame must lie with the man, or with the skill. This is a pretty doctrine.”

Dryly challenging the assumption that public rejection proves artistic inadequacy. · Speech, The Claims of Art, 1907

• Art
• Criticism
• Success

“The material rewards of Art are oftenest so small that men may be forgiven if they sacrifice themselves and their belongings to make an appeal to the next generation.”

Emphasising the sacrifice sometimes demanded by artistic vocation. · Speech, The Claims of Art, 1907

• Art
• Future
• Sacrifice

“There are men who devote their skill to producing things and expressing ideas for which the public has no present need.”

Defending creators whose work may only find its audience in the future. · Speech, The Claims of Art, 1907

• Art
• Future
• Originality

“The Black Thought is an horror of great darkness that drops upon a man unbidden.”

Describing the sudden fear that an artist may be prevented from continuing his work. · Speech, The Claims of Art, 1907

• Anxiety
• Art
• Fear

“It is a twelvemonth’s casualty-list among a very small proportion of those who set out to make life beautiful, and found it very bitter.”

Contrasting the ideal of artistic creation with the harsh realities faced by artists. · Speech, The Claims of Art, 1907

• Art
• Beauty
• Suffering

“Time and chance are as uncontrolled a brace of impressionists as ever they were.”

A memorable image for the unpredictable forces governing success and failure. · Speech, The Claims of Art, 1907

• Chance
• Fate
• Success

“It is much pleasanter to contemplate the man whose skill has found favour and keeps it.”

A wry acknowledgement of the precarious nature of artistic success. · Speech, The Claims of Art, 1907

• Art
• Fame
• Success

“To their skill, sympathy, humour, and, above all, knowledge, we owe more than we realise.”

Recognising the quiet value of talented people who remain underappreciated. · Speech, The Claims of Art, 1907

• Art
• Friendship
• Knowledge