When a man has reached a condition in which he believes that a thing must happen because he does not wish it, and that what he wishes to happen never will be, this is really the state called desperation.

Treat a work of art like a prince. Let it speak to you first.

Every human perfection is allied to a defect into which it threatens to pass, but it is also true that every defect is allied to a perfection.

There are, first of all, two kinds of authors: those who write for the subject's sake, and those who write for writing's sake.

All truth passes through three stages. First, it is ridiculed. Second, it is violently opposed. Third, it is accepted as being self-evident.

I constantly saw the false and the bad, and finally the absurd and the senseless, standing in universal admiration and honour.

The greatest of follies is to sacrifice health for any other kind of happiness.