They will not be able
to discover me even with the aid of Sherlock Holmes.
When I am old, I hope to take coffee with pleasant friends, whether it
be in a palace or a porter's lodge. I neither expect nor desire flags,
committees, nor waving banners.
Laurel does not seduce me, and you cannot do it with bunting.
ELECTIVE ANTIPATHIES
As I have expressed my opinions of other authors sharply, making them
public with the proper disgust, others have done the same with me, which
is but logical and natural, especially in the case of a writer such as
myself, who holds that sympathy and antipathy are of the very essence of
art.
My opponents and myself differ chiefly in the fact that I am more
cynical than they, and so I disclose my personal animus quite
ingenuously, which my enemies fail to do.
I hold that there are two kinds of morality; morality of work and
morality of play. The morality of work is an immoral morality, which
teaches us to take advantage of circumstances and to lie. The morality
of play, for the reason that it deals with mere futilities, is finer and
more chivalrous.
I believe that in literature and in all liberal arts, the morality
should be the morality of play, while my opponents for the most part
hold that the morality of literature should be the morality of work.
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