I always like to know everything about my new friends, and nothing about my old ones.

When one has never heard a man's name in the course of one's life, it speaks volumes for him; he must be quite respectable.

You will always be fond of me. I represent to you all the sins you have never had the courage to commit.

And now, I am dying beyond my means. (Said while sipping champagne on his deathbed.)

The unread is always better than the unreadable.

I have put my talent into writing, my genius I have saved for living.

The only thing that one really knows about human nature is that it changes. Change is the one quality we can predicate of it. The systems that fail are those that rely on the permanency of human nature, and not on its growth and development. The error of Louis XIV was that he thought human nature would always be the same. The result of his error was the French Revolution. It was an admirable result.