The good we get from art is not what we learn from it; it is what we become through it.

Society, civilized society at least, is never very ready to believe anything to the detriment of those who are both rich and fascinating. It feels instinctively that manners are of more importance than morals, and, in its opinion, the highest respectability is of much less value than the possession of a good chef.

The worst of it is that I am perpetually being punished for nothing; this governor loves to punish, and he punishes by taking my books away from me. It's perfectly awful to let the mind grind itself away between the upper and nether millstones of regret and remorse without respite; with books my life would be livable -- any life.

I was wrong. God's law is only Love.

The ability of the theist to misunderstand a thing is directly proportional to the obviousness of the thing.

To be really mediæval one should have no body. To be really modern one should have no soul. To be really Greek one should have no clothes.

Examinations, sir, are pure humbug from beginning to end. If a man is a gentleman, he knows quite enough, and if he is not a gentleman, whatever he knows is bad for him.