Music is the art... which most completely realizes the artistic idea and is the condition to which all the other arts are constantly aspiring.

I can sympathize with everything, except suffering.

Life is a great disappointment.

The best work in literature is always done by those who do not depend on it for their daily bread and the highest form of literature, Poetry, brings no wealth to the singer.

It seems to me that we all look at Nature too much, and live with her too little.

Only the unimaginative can fail to find a reason for drinking Champagne

Romance lives by repetition, and repetition converts an appetite into an art. Besides, each time that one loves is the only time one has ever loved. Difference of object does not alter singleness of passion. It merely intensifies it. We can have in life but one great experience at best, and the secret of life is to reproduce that experience as often as possible.