"When one is in love, one always begins by deceiving one's self, and one always ends by deceiving others. That is what the world calls a romance."
"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."
"I never approve, or disapprove, of anything now. It is an absurd attitude to take towards life."
"I am too fond of reading books to care to write them."
"What fire does not destroy, it hardens"
"Those who find ugly meanings in beautiful things are corrupt without being charming. This is a fault. Those who find beautiful meanings in beautiful things are the cultivated. For these there is hope. They are the elect to whom beautiful things mean only Beauty. There is no such thing as a moral or an immoral book. Books are well written, or badly written. That is all."