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.

But we never get back our youth… The pulse of joy that beats in us at twenty becomes sluggish. Our limbs fail, our senses rot. We degenerate into hideous puppets, haunted by the memory of the passions of which we were too much afraid, and the exquisite temptations that we had not the courage to yield to.

Intellectual generalities are always interesting, but generalities in morals mean absolutely nothing.

Lean on principles, one day they'll end up giving way.

Genius lasts longer than Beauty. That accounts for the fact that we all take such pains to over-educate ourselves.

The aim of the liar is simply to charm, to delight, to give pleasure. He is the very basis of civilized society.

What between the duties expected of one during one's lifetime, and the duties exacted from one after one's death, land has ceased to be either a profit or a pleasure. It gives one position, and prevents one from keeping it up. That's all that can be said about land.