A little sincerity is a dangerous thing, and a great deal of it is absolutely fatal.

Good intentions have been the ruin of the world. The only people who have achieved anything have been those who have had no intentions at all.

I tremble with pleasure when I think that on the very day of my leaving prison both the laburnum and the lilac will be blooming in the gardens, and that I shall see the wind stir into restless beauty the swaying gold of the one, and make the other toss the pale purple of its plumes, so that all the air shall be Arabia for me.

It's the spectator, and not life, that art really mirrors.

It is better to repent a sin than regret the loss of a pleasure.

Whenever one has anything unpleasant to say, one should always be quite candid.

She had a passion for secrecy, but she herself was merely a Sphinx without a secret.