Take nothing on its looks; take everything on evidence. There's no better rule. Great Expectations

The vanity of others is only counter to our taste when it is counter to our vanity. Beyond Good and Evil

The finest virtues can become deformed with age. The precise mind becomes finicky; the thrifty man, miserly; the cautious man, timorous; the man of imagination, fanciful. Even perseverance ends up in a sort of stupidity. Just as, on the other hand, being too willing to understand too many opinions, too diverse ways of seeing, constancy is lost and the mind goes astray in a restless fickleness. Reflections on Literature and Morality

Art is a collaboration between God and the artist, and the less the artist does the better. Autumn Leaves