Where one should see only what is beautiful, our public looks only for what is true.

What is exhilarating in bad taste is the aristocratic pleasure of giving offense.

All forms of beauty, like all possible phenomena, contain an element of the eternal and an element of the transitory - of the absolute and of the particular. Absolute and eternal beauty does not exist, or rather it is only an abstraction creamed from the general surface of different beauties. The particular element in each manifestation comes from the emotions: and just as we have our own particular emotions, so we have our own beauty.

There are but three beings worthy of respect: the priest, the warrior and the poet. To know, to kill and to create. The rest of mankind may be taxed and drudged, they are born for the stable, that is to say, to practise what they call professions.

Woman is natural, that is to say, abominable.

To handle a language skillfully is to practice a kind of evocative sorcery.

Cats, so strong and gentle, the pride of the household.