Nothing is so aggravating as calmness. There is something positively brutal about the good temper of most modern men.

In fact, the whole of Japan is a pure invention. There is no such country, there are no such people.... The Japanese people are ... simply a mode of style, an exquisite fancy of art.

I don't know how to talk. Oh! talk to every woman as if you loved her, and to every man as if he bored you, and at the end of your first season you will have the reputation of possessing the most perfect social tact.

The best revenge is to live well.

The worst thing to do with success, is to boast about it.

I made art a philosophy, and philosophy an art.

Ones real life is often the life that one does not lead.