I have been right, Basil, haven’t I, to take my love out of poetry, and to find my wife in Shakespeare’s plays? Lips that Shakespeare taught to speak have whispered their secret in my ear. I have had the arms of Rosalind around me, and kissed Juliet on the mouth.

Popularity is the crown of laurel which the world puts on bad art. Whatever is popular is wrong.

No man is rich enough to buy back his past.

Now and then it is a joy to have one's table red with wine and roses.

In the old days men had the rack. Now they have the Press.

If a woman wants to hold a man she has merely to appeal to what is worst in him.

The fact is, that civilization requires slaves. Unless there are slaves to do the ugly, horrible, uninteresting work, culture and contemplation become almost impossible.