The artist is the creator of beautiful things. To reveal art and conceal the artist is art's aim. The critic is he who can translate into another manner or a new material his impression of beautiful things.

He hadn’t a single redeeming vice.

If this is the way Queen Victoria treats her prisoners, she doesn't deserve to have any.

Simple pleasures are the last healthy refuge in a complex world.

Don't squander the gold of your days, listening to the tedious, trying to improve the hopeless failure, or giving away your life to the ignorant, the common, and the vulgar

I dislike modern memoirs. They are generally written by people who have either entirely lost their memories, or have never done anything worth remembering.

I put all my genius into my life; I put only my talent into my works.