It is absurd to say that there are neither ruins nor curiosities in America when they have their mothers and their manners.

There is only good art and mediocre art.

It's tragic how few people ever 'possess their souls' before they die. 'Nothing is more rare in any man', says Emerson, 'than an act of his own.' It is quite true. Most people are other people. Their thoughts are someone else's opinions, their life is a mimicry, their passions a quotation.

The English public takes no interest in a work of art until it is told that the work in question is immoral.

When good Americans die they go to Paris.

True friends stab you in the front.

But what is the good of friendship if one cannot say exactly what one means? Anybody can say charming things and try to please and to flatter, but a true friend always says unpleasant things, and does not mind giving pain. Indeed, if he is a really true friend he prefers it, for he knows that then he is doing good.