The terror of society, which is the basis of morals, the terror of God, which is the secret of religion-these are the two things that govern us.

A temperament capable of receiving, through an imaginative medium, and under imaginative conditions, new and beautiful impressions, is the only temperament that can appreciate a work of art.

She was a curious woman, whose dresses always looked as if they had been designed in a rage and put on in a tempest. She was usually in love with somebody, and, as her passion was never returned, she had kept all her illusions. She tried to look picturesque, but only succeeded in being untidy.

All authority is quite degrading. It degrades those who exercise it, and it degrades those over whom it is exercised.

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.

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

No artist is ever morbid. The artist can express everything.