People say that life is the thing, but I prefer reading.

The truth is that the phenomena of artistic production are still so obscure, so baffling, we are still so far from an accurate scientific and psychological knowledge of their genesis or meaning, that we are forced to accept them as empirical facts; and empirical and non-explanatory names are the names that suit them best.

When we say we are certain so-and-so can't possibly have done it, what we mean is that we think he very likely did.

People have a right to be shocked; the mention of unmentionable things is a kind of participation in them.

Hearts that are delicate and kind and tongues that are neither - these make the finest company in the world.

Self-respecting people do not care to peep at their reflections in unexpected mirrors, or to see themselves as others see them.

People before the public live an imagined life in the thought of others, and flourish or feel faint as their self outside themselves grows bright or dwindles in that mirror.