A grand passion is the privelege of people who have nothing to do.

Greek dress was in its essence inartistic. Nothing should reveal the body but the body.

I can resist everything except temptation.

Ah! realize your youth while you have it. Don’t squander the gold of your days, listening to the tedious, trying to improve the hopeless failure, or giving away your life to the ignorant, the common, and the vulgar. These are the sickly aims, the false ideals, of our age. Live! Live the wonderful life that is in you! Let nothing be lost upon you. Be always searching for new sensations. Be afraid of nothing.

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.

As for the virtuous poor, one can pity them of course, but one cannot possibly admire them.

Don't give a woman advice; one should never give a woman anything she can't wear in the evening.