No artist has ethical sympathies. An ethical sympathy in an artist is an unpardonable mannerism of style.

For he who lives more lives than one more deaths than one must die.

When one is in love, one always begins by deceiving one's self, and one always ends by deceiving others. That is what the world calls a romance.

I must say... that I ruined myself: and that nobody, great or small, can be ruined except by his own hand.

Good taste is the excuse I've always given for leading such a bad life

There is nothing that stirs in the whole world of thought to which sorrow does not vibrate in terrible and exquisite pulsation.

They did not understand a single word of what he was saying, but that made no matter, for they put their heads on one side, and looked wise, which is quite as good as understanding a thing, and very much easier.