Whiskey has killed more men than bullets, but most men would rather be full of whiskey than bullets.

A best-seller is the gilded tomb of a mediocre talent

What is more mortifying than to feel that you have missed the plum for want of courage to shake the tree?

What things there are to write, if one could only write them! My mind is full of gleaming thought; gay moods and mysterious, moth-like meditations hover in my imagination, fanning their painted wings. But always the rarest, those streaked with azure and the deepest crimson, flutter away beyond my reach.

The test of enjoyment is the remembrance which it leaves behind.

Charming people live up to the very edge of their charm, and behave as outrageously as the world will let them.

We need new friends; some of us are cannibals who have eaten their old friends up; others must have ever-renewed audiences before whom to re-enact the ideal version of their lives.