There's no sin but stupidity.

All charming people, I fancy, are spoiled. It is the secret of their attraction.

Romantic literature is in effect imaginative lying.

Dear Prince, I must leave you, but I will never forget you, and next spring I will bring you back two beautiful jewels in place of those you have given away. The ruby shall be redder than a red rose, and the sapphire shall be as blue as the great sea.

Who is that man over there? I don't know him. What is he doing? Is he a conspirator? Have you searched him? Give him till tomorrow to confess, then hang him! -- hang him!

The only thing that the artist cannot see is the obvious. The only thing that the public can see is the obvious.

Art only begins where Imitation ends.