A man must love a thing very much if he not only practices it without any hope of fame or money, but even practices it without any hope of doing it well.

Work is the refuge of people who have nothing better to do

Henry James writes fiction as if it were a painful duty.

Dreaming about a thing in order to do it properly is right; but dreaming about it when we should be doing it is wrong.

Never live for those exceptional moments—they are surprises. God will give us His touches of inspiration only when He sees that we are not in danger of being led away by them. We must never consider our moments of inspiration as the standard way of life—our work is our standard.

If you make a god out of your best moments, you will find that God will fade out of your life, never to return until you are obedient in the work He has placed closest to you, and until you have learned not to be obsessed with those exceptional moments He has given you.

God engineers everything; and wherever He places us, our one supreme goal should be to pour out our lives in wholehearted devotion to Him in that particular work. "Whatever your hand finds to do, do it with your might . . ." (Ecclesiastes 9:10).

I'd have stopped writing years ago if it were for the money.

Every idea is my last. I feel sure of it. So, I try to do the best with each as it comes and that's where my responsibility ends. But I just don't wait for ideas. I look for them. Constantly. And if I don't use the ideas that I find, they're going to quit showing up.

Results are obtained by exploiting opportunities, not by solving problems.

to cut gemstones for settings, and to carve wood, so that he may be a master of every craft.

to cut gemstones for settings, and to carve wood, so that he may be a master of every artistic craft.