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.

I do not approve of anything which tampers with natural ignorance

In love, it is better to know and be disappointed, than to not know and always wonder.

He watched it with that strange interest in trivial things that we try to develop when things of high import make us afraid, or when we are stirred by some new emotion for which we cannot find expression.

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

All bad poetry springs from genuine feeling.

Sin is a thing that writes itself across a man's face. It cannot be concealed.