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

Perhaps one never seems so much at ones ease as when one has to play a part.

M. Zola is determined to show that, if he has not got genius, he can at least be dull.

Beauty is a form of Genius--is higher, indeed, than Genius, as it needs no explanation. It is one of the great facts of the world, like sunlight, or springtime, or the reflection in the dark waters of that silver shell we call the moon. It cannot be questioned. It has divine right of sovereignty. It makes princes of those who have it.

Every woman becomes their mother. That's their tragedy. And no man becomes his. That's his tragedy.

It is sometimes said that the tragedy of an artist's life is that he cannot realise his ideal. But the true tragedy that dogs the steps of most artists is that they realise their ideal too absolutely. For, when the ideal is realised, it is robbed of its wonder and its mystery, and becomes simply a new starting-point for an ideal that is other than itself.

All art is at once surface and symbol.