One can survive everything, nowadays, except death, and live down everything except a good reputation.

Indeed I have always been of the opinion that hard work is simply the refuge of people who have nothing to do.

Always! That is a dreadful word. It makes me shudder when I hear it. Women are so fond of using it. They spoil every romance by trying to make it last forever. It is a meaningless word, too. The only difference between a caprice and a life-long passion is that the caprice lasts a little longer.

A woman who cannot make her mistakes charming, is only a female.

As for the virtuous poor, one can pity them of course, but one cannot possibly admire them.

It is through art, and through art only, that we can realise our perfection.

every portrait that is painted with feeling is a portrait of the artist, not of the sitter. The sitter is merely the accident, the occasion. It is not he who is revealed by the painter; it is rather the painter who, on the coloured canvas, reveals himself.