Being a useful man has always seemed to me to be something truly hideous.

The idea of beauty which man creates for himself imprints itself on his whole attire, crumples or stiffens his dress, rounds off or squares his gesture, and in the long run even ends by subtly penetrating the very features of his face. Man ends by looking like his ideal self. These engravings can be translated either into beauty or ugliness; in one direction, they become caricatures, in the other, antique statues.

What is irritating about love is that it is a crime that requires an accomplice.

Life is a hospital in which every patient is possessed by a desire to change his bed.

Remembering is only a new form of suffering.

Dandyism is the last flicker of heroism in decadent ages.... Dandyism is a setting sun; like the declining star, it is magnificent, without heat and full of melancholy. But alas! the rising tide of democracy, which spreads everywhere and reduces everything to the same level, is daily carrying away these last champions of human pride, and submerging, in the waters of oblivion, the last traces of these remarkable myrmidons.

It is necessary to work, if not from inclination, at least from despair. Everything considered, work is less boring than amusing oneself.