Van Wyck Brooks — American Critic born on February 16, 1886, died on May 02, 1963

Van Wyck Brooks was an American literary critic, biographer, and historian... (wikipedia)

People of small caliber are always carping. They are bent on showing their own superiority, their knowledge or prowess or good breeding.
Genius and virtue are to be more often found clothed in gray than in peacock bright.
The creative impulses of man are always at war with the possessive impulses.
The man who has the courage of his platitudes is always a successful man.
Magnanimous people have no vanity, they have no jealousy, and they feed on the true and the solid wherever they find it. And, what is more, they find it everywhere.