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

Most of our modern portrait painters are doomed to absolute oblivion. They never paint what they see. They paint what the public sees, and the public never sees anything.

Who is that man over there? I don't know him. What is he doing? Is he a conspirator? Have you searched him? Give him till tomorrow to confess, then hang him! -- hang him!

The one duty we owe to history is to rewrite it.

He is really not so ugly after all, provided, of course, that one shuts one's eyes, and does not look at him.

Punctuality is the thief of time

A red rose is not selfish because it wants to be a red rose. It would be horribly selfish if it wanted all the other flowers in the garden to be both red and roses.