Life is too short to learn German

The work of art is to dominate the spectator: the spectator is not to dominate the work of art.

The fact is, the public make use of the classics of a country as a means of checking the progress of Art. They degrade the classics into authorities. They use them as bludgeons for preventing the free expression of Beauty in new forms.

I am too fond of reading books to care to write them.

Women, as some witty Frenchman once put it, inspire us with the desire to do masterpieces and always prevent us from carrying them out.

I don't want to be at the mercy of my emotions. I want to use them, to enjoy them, and to dominate them.

Individualism has really the higher aim. Modern morality consists in accepting the standard of one's age.