No Subject Of Study Is More Important

Of True Knowledge At Any Time, A Good Part Is Merely Convenient, Necessary Indeed To The Worker, But Not To An Understanding Of His Subject: One Can Judge A Building Without Knowing Where To Buy The Bricks; One Can Understand A Violin Sonata Without Knowing How To Score For The Instrument. The Work May In Fact Be Better Understood Without A Knowledge Of The Details Of Its Manufacture, Of Attention To These Tends To Distract From Meaning And Effect.

The Professionals Resemble And Recognize Each Other By Virtue Of The Stigmata That Their Trade Has Left Upon Them. They Are Like The Dog In The Fable, Whose Collar Has Made An Indelible Mark Around His Neck. The Amateur Is The Shaggy Wolf Whom No Dog Had Better Trust Too Far.

Great Cultural Changes Begin In Affectation And End In Routine.

We May Complain And Cavil At The Anarchy Which Is The Amateurs Natural Element, But In Soberness We Must Agree That If The Amateur Did Not Exist It Would Be Necessary To Invent Him.

The Intellectuals' Chief Cause Of Anguish Are One Another's Works.