The truth about the life of a man is not what he does, but the legend which he creates around himself.

Is insincerity such a terrible thing? I think not. It is merely a method by which we can multiply our personalities.

If people were meant to be nude, they would have been born this way.

A man can't be too careful in the choice of his enemies.

The only people I would care to be with now are artists and people who have suffered: those who know what beauty is, and those who know what sorrow is: nobody else interests me.

Romance lives by repetition, and repetition converts an appetite into an art. Besides, each time that one loves is the only time one has ever loved. Difference of object does not alter singleness of passion. It merely intensifies it. We can have in life but one great experience at best, and the secret of life is to reproduce that experience as often as possible.

Civilization is not by means an easy thing to attain to. There are only two ways by which man can reach it. One is by being cultured, the other by being corrupt.