There are people whose society I find delicious; but when I sit alone and think of them I shudder.

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.

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.

Don't tell friends their social faults; they will cure the fault and never forgive you.

The world is not unkind, and reprobates are worse than their reputations.

There are two things to aim at in life: first, to get what you want; and after that, to enjoy it. Only the wisest of mankind achieve the second.

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