Biography
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Essays by
On actors and acting
The stage not only refines the manners, but it is the best teacher of morals, for it is the truest and most intelligible picture of life.
On common-place critics
A common-place critic has something to say upon every occasion, and he always tells you either what is not true, or what you knew before, or what is not worth knowing.
On good-nature
Good-nature, or what is often considered as such, is the most selfish of all the virtues: it is nine times out of ten mere indolence of disposition.
On gusto
There is hardly any object entirely devoid of expression, without some character of power belonging to it, some precise association with pleasure or pain.
On the love of life
The love of life is, in general, the effect not of our enjoyments, but of our passions. We are not attached to it so much for its own sake, or as it is connected with happiness, as because it is necessary to action.