What we have to do, what at any rate it is our duty to do, is to revive the old art of Lying.

The studio was filled with the rich odour of roses, and when the light summer wind stirred amidst the trees of the garden, there came through the open door the heavy scent of the lilac, or the more delicate perfume of the pink-flowering thorn.

Marriage is the triumph of imagination over intelligence. Second marriage is the triumph of hope over experience.

And the marvellous rose became crimson, like the rose of the eastern sky. Crimson was the girdle of petals, and crimson as a ruby was the heart

A virtuous abstinence from the joys of pederasty comes most easily to those who have no taste for it.

We live in an age that reads too much to be wise, and that thinks too much to be beautiful.

She is all the great heroines of the world in one. She is more than an individual. I love her, and I must make her love me. I want to make Romeo jealous. I want the dead lovers of the world to hear our laughter, and grow sad. I want a breath of our passion to stir dust into consciousness, to wake their ashes into pain.