The wit and wisdom of Napier

Since the aforementioned Napier is player-of-the-day at Chessgames.com, a few bon mots from his pen:

• As player, [Mason] had the unique quality of competently simmering thru six aching hours and scintillating in the seventh. Others resembled him but forgot to scintillate.

• Spielmann plays always like an educated cave-man, who fell asleep several thousand years ago, – and woke up quite lately in the Black Forest.

• [T]he killing instinct necessary to success is the same that men take into Bengal jungles, – for a day.  A killing instinct which survives the day and endures month in and month out, is stark pantomime...