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

One's own vanities and humiliations I find a delicious subject for conversation. Things said of me behind my back I don't enjoy, and don't listen to them.

What pursuit is more elegant than that of collecting the ignominies of our nature and transfixing them for show, each on the bright pin of a polished phrase?

The great art of writing is the art of making people real to themselves with words.

I might give my life for my friend, but he had better not ask me to do up a parcel.

How it infuriates a bigot, when he is forced to drag out his dark convictions!

It is the wretchedness of being rich that you have to live with rich people.