Do you absolutely despise me, Walter?" "No." He hesitated and his voice was strange. "I despise myself.

The mathematician who after seeing Phedre asked: 'Qu'est que ca prouve?' was not such a fool as he has been generally made out. No one has ever been able to explain why the Doric temple of Paestum is more beautiful than a glass of cold beer except by bringing in considerations that have nothing to do with beauty.

The essence of the beautiful is unity in variety.

Nothing more predisposes someone in our favour than to let him rob you a little.

The artist produces for the liberation of his soul. It is his nature to create as it is the nature of water to run down the hill.

A man filled with meat turns his back on the dry bones of political doctrine. Fanatical devotion to the ruling party comes more readily from the materially deprived At a dinner party one should eat wisely but not too well, and talk well but not too wisely.

It is clear that men accept an immediate pain rather than an immediate pleasure, but only because they expect a greater pleasure in the future. Often the pleasure is illusory, but their error in calculation is no refutation of the rule.