The things people say of a man do not alter a man. He is what he is. Public opinion is of no value whatsoever.
The public takes from a writer, or a writing, what it needs and lets the remainder go. but what they take is usually what they need least and what they let go is what they need most.
The public has always, and in every age, been badly brought up.
The men who loom most largely in the public eye are men of little or no personality. They are marionettes who dance to the wires pulled by a master hand.
The fact is that the public have an insatiable curiosity to know everything, except what is worth knowing. Journalism, conscious of this, and having tradesman-like habits, supplies their demands.
It takes so little to undermine public confidence in a man.
If you want to be elected to any public office, you have to be sold—you have to be merchandised.
