My mother worked for my living instead of preaching that it was my duty to work for hers: therefore take off your hat to her, and blush.[A] It is now open to anyone who pleases to read The Irrational Knot.

I do not recommend him to; but it is possible that the same mysterious force which drove me through the labor of writing it may have had some purpose which will sustain others through the labor of reading it, and even reward them with some ghastly enjoyment of it.

For my own part I cannot stand it.

It is to me only one of the heaps of spoiled material that all apprenticeship involves.

I consent to its publication because I remember that British colonel who called on Beethoven when the elderly composer was working at his posthumous quartets, and offered him a commission for a work in the style of his jejune septet.