These are the times that try men’s souls. The summer soldier and the sunshine patriot will, in the crisis, shrink from the service of his country; but he that stands it NOW, deserves the love and thanks of man and woman

Fear narrows the little entrance of our heart. It shrinks up our capacity to love. It freezes up our power to give ourselves

It takes courage to love, but pain through love is the purifying fire which those who love generously know. We all know people who are so much afraid of pain that they shut themselves up like clams in a shell and, giving out nothing, receive nothing and therefore shrink until life is a mere living death.

Keep looking below surface appearances. Don’t shrink from doing so just because you might not like what you find.

To be an artist is to fail, as no other dare to fail… failure is his world and the shrink from it desertion.