Unfortunately, all gatherings convened for the betterment of the human lot show a tendency to gas themselves, and not with laughing-gas either.

... it is nearly impossible to understand those who are beyond our sight, who are not explained to us by ties of birth or the contact of the flesh.

If it be ungentlemanly to kiss and tell, it is still further from gentlemanliness to pray and tell.

A copy of the universe is not what is required of art; one of the damned things is ample.

I always have beauty around me, for I have but to go to my piano, and trace one of the million designs that have been made by my masters.

Were I to go down into the market-place, armed with the powers of witchcraft, and take a peasant by the shoulders and whisper to him, 'In your lifetime, have you known peace?' wait for his answer, shake his shoulders and transform him into his father, and ask him the same question, and transform him in his turn to his father, I would never hear the word 'Yes,' if I carried my questioning of the dead back for a thousand years. I would always hear, 'No, there was fear, there were our enemies without, our rulers within, there was prison, there was torture, there was violent death.

the law, like art, is always vainly racing to catch up with experience.