Each little thing that we do passes into the great machine of life which may grind our virtues to powder and make them worthless, or transform our sins into elements of a new civilization, more marvelous and more splendid than any that has gone before.

Great passions are for the great of soul, and great events can be seen only by those who are on a level with them

I love to talk about nothing. It's the only thing I know anything about.

Pleasure is Nature's test, her sign of approval. When man is happy, he is in harmony with himself and his environment.

Conformity is the last refuge of the unimaginitive

But we never get back our youth… The pulse of joy that beats in us at twenty becomes sluggish. Our limbs fail, our senses rot. We degenerate into hideous puppets, haunted by the memory of the passions of which we were too much afraid, and the exquisite temptations that we had not the courage to yield to.

Come, dear, [Gwendolen rises] we have already missed five, if not six, trains. To miss any more might expose us to comment on the platform.