While one should always study the method of a great artist, one should never imitate his manner. The manner of an artist is essentially individual, the method of an artist is absolutely universal. The first personality, which no one should copy.

Misfortunes one can endure--they come from outside, they are accidents. But to suffer for one's own faults--ah!--there is the sting of life.

He lives the poetry that he cannot write. The others write the poetry that they dare not realize

Lord Illingworth told me this morning that there was an orchid there as beautiful as the seven deadly sins.

There is only one thing in life worse than being talked about, and that is not being talked about.

Do not be afraid of the past. If people tell you that it is irrevocable, do not believe them. The past, the present and the future are but one moment in the sight of God, in whose sight we should try to live. Time and space, succession and extension, are merely accidental conditions of thought. The imagination can transcend them.

I hate vulgar realism in literature. The man who would call a spade a spade should be compelled to use one.