In the matter of furnishing, I find a certain absence of ugliness far worse than ugliness.

As for an authentic villain, the real thing, the absolute, the artist, one rarely meets him even once in a lifetime. The ordinary bad hat is always in part a decent fellow.

Hope costs nothing.

Truffles must come to the table in their own stock and as you break open this jewel sprung from a poverty-stricken soil, imagine - if you have never visited it - the desolate kingdom where it rules.

There is no need to waste pity on young girls who are having their moments of disillusionment, for in another moment they will recover their illusion.

We only do well the things we like doing.

To a poet, silence is an acceptable response, even a flattering one.