"It is perfectly monstrous,' he said, at last, 'the way people go about nowadays saying things against one behind one's back that are absolutely and entirely true."
"There is no such thing as a good influence. Because to influence a person is to give him one's own soul. He does not think his natural thoughts, or burn with his natural passions. His virtures are not real to him. His sins, if there are such thing as sins, are borrowed. He becomes an echo of someone else's music, an actor of a part that has not been written for him."
"Experience is merely the name men gave to their mistakes."
"I never approve, or disapprove, of anything now. It is an absurd attitude to take towards life."
"The only horrible thing in the world is ennui."
"I don't want to be at the mercy of my emotions. I want to use them, to enjoy them, and to dominate them."