If I hadn't believed it, then I wouldn't have seen it

The books that the world calls immoral are books that show the world its own shame.

History is a lie commonly agreed upon.

Artists reproduce themselves or each other, with wearisome iteration. But criticism is always moving on, and the critic is always developing.

I think you are wrong, Basil, but I won't argue with you. It is only the intellectually lost who ever argue.

The intellect is not a serious thing, and never has been. It is an instrument on which one plays, that is all.

After the first glass, you see things as you wish they were. After the second, you see things as they are not. Finally, you see things as they really are, and that is the most horrible thing in the world.