I have said to you to speak the truth is a painful thing. To be forced to tell lies is much worse.

The form of government that is most suitable to the artist is no government at all. Authority over him and his art is ridiculous.

Disobedience is man's original virtue.

When I was young I thought that money was the most important thing in life; now that I am old I know that it is.

The only difference between the saint and the sinner is that every saint has a past, and every sinner has a future.

The only thing that one really knows about human nature is that it changes. Change is the one quality we can predicate of it. The systems that fail are those that rely on the permanency of human nature, and not on its growth and development. The error of Louis XIV was that he thought human nature would always be the same. The result of his error was the French Revolution. It was an admirable result.

You are more to me than any of them has any idea; you are the atmosphere of beauty through which I see life; you are the incarnation of all lovely things...I think of you day and night. ~ Letter to Lord Alfred 'Bosie' Douglas