The essence of life is the smile of round female bottoms, under the shadow of cosmic boredom.

Words dazzle and deceive because they are mimed by the face. But black words on a white page are the soul laid bare.

It is better to be unhappy in love than unhappy in marriage, but some people manage to be both.

She was the temptress who had ensnared the first man, and who still continued her work at damnation; she was the being who is feeble, dangerous, mysteriously troubling. And even more than her body of perdition, he hated her loving soul.

Whatever you want to say, there is only one word to express it, only one verb to give it movement, only one adjective to qualify it.

The English have only three sauces - a white one, a brown one and a yellow one, and none of them have any flavor whatever.

Whatever one wishes to say, there is one noun only by which to express it, one verb only to give it life, one adjective only which will describe it. One must search until one has discovered them, this noun, this verb, this adjective, and never rest content with approximations, never resort to trickery, however happy, or to vulgarism, in order to dodge the difficulty.