The great critic … must be a philosopher, for from philosophy he will learn serenity, impartiality, and the transitoriness of human things.

When we come to judge others it is not by ourselves as we really are that we judge them, but by an image that we have formed of ourselves from which we have left out everything that offends our vanity or would discredit us in the eyes of the world.

When some incident has shattered the career you’ve mapped out for yourself, a folly, a crime or a misfortune, you mustn’t think you’re down and out. It may be a stroke of luck, and when you look back years later you may say to yourself that you wouldn’t for anything in the world exchange the new life disaster has forced upon you for the dull, humdrum existence you would have led if circumstances hadn’t intervened.

The good traveler has the gift of surprise.

And I have the sunset, and the Tuscan wine, and the white teeth of the women in Rome. I am a traveler in Romance.

A woman may be as wicked as she likes, but if she isn't pretty it won't do her much good.

Beauty is an ecstasy; it is as simple as hunger.