One man that has a mind and knows it can always beat ten men who haven’t and don’t.

It was from Handel that I learned that style consists in force of assertion. If you can say a thing with one stroke, unanswerably you have style; if not, you are at best a marchande de plaisir , a decorative litterateur, or a musical confectioner, or a painter of fans with cupids and coquettes. Handel had power.

Keep away from books and from men who get their ideas from books, and your own books will always be fresh.