Wickedness is a myth invented by good people to account for the curious attractiveness of others.

The only form of fiction in which real characters do not seem out of place is history. In novels they are detestable.

Nothing can cure the soul but the senses, just as nothing can cure the senses but the soul.

Misfortunes one can endure--they come from outside, they are accidents. But to suffer for one's own faults--ah!--there is the sting of life.

Nobody ever commits a crime without doing something stupid.

Sin is the only real colour element left in modern life.

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.