So much had been surrendered! And to such little purpose! There had been mad wilful rejections, monstrous forms of self-torture and self-denial, whose origin was fear and whose result was a degradation infinitely more terrible than that fancied degradation from which, in their ignorance, they had sought to escape.

The only excuse for making a useless thing is that one admires it intensely. All art is quite useless.

There is nothing so difficult to marry as a large nose.

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

Life is too short to be in a hurry.

History is only gossip.

Always borrow money from a pessimist. He won't expect it back.