The things one feels absolutely certain about are never true. That is the fatality of faith, and the lesson of romance.

It is a very poor consolation to be told that the man who has given one a bad dinner, or poor wine, is irreproachable in private life. Even the cardinal virtues cannot atone for half-cold entrees.

For the canons of good society are, or should be, the same as the canons of art. Form is absolutely essential to it.

Public opinion exists only where there are no ideas.

No publisher should ever express an opinion on the value of what he publishes. That is a matter entirely for the literary critic to decide. I can quite understand how any ordinary critic would be strongly prejudiced against a work that was accompanied by a premature and unnecessary panegyric from the publisher. A publisher is simply a useful middle-man. It is not for him to anticipate the verdict of criticism.

Let me be surrounded by luxury, I can do without the necessities!

Each time that one loves is the only time one has ever loved.