There should be a law that no ordinary newspaper should be allowed to write about art. The harm they do by their foolish and random writing it would be impossible to overestimate--not to the artist but to the public.... Without them we would judge a man simply by his work; but at present the newspapers are trying hard to induce the public to judge a sculptor, for instance, never by his statues but by the way he treats his wife; a painter by the amount of his income and a poet by the colour of his necktie.

Prayer must never be answered: if it is, it ceases to be prayer and becomes correspondence.

Missionaries are going to reform the world whether it wants to or not.

We can forgive a man for making a useful thing as long as he does not admire it

Other people are quite dreadful. The only possible society is oneself.

The way of paradoxes is the way of truth. To test Reality we must see it on the tight-rope.

Pleasure is the only thing one should live for, nothing ages like happiness.