I respect my father more--I mean I despise him less--for doing his own sweating and filching than I do the sensitive sluggards and cowards who lent him their money to sweat and filch with, and asked no questions provided the interest was paid punctually.

And as to your friends the artists, they are the worst of all." "Oh, Sidney, you are determined not to be pleased.

Artists don't keep factories." "No; but the factory is only a part of the machinery of the system.
Its basis is the tyranny of brain force, which, among civilized men, is allowed to do what muscular force does among schoolboys and savages.

The schoolboy proposition is: 'I am stronger than you, therefore you shall fag for me.' Its grown up form is: 'I am cleverer than you, therefore you shall fag for me.' The state of things we produce by submitting to this, bad enough even at first, becomes intolerable when the mediocre or foolish descendants of the clever fellows claim to have inherited their privileges.

Now, no men are greater sticklers for the arbitrary dominion of genius and talent than your artists.