Delphi, Greece - 20071. “A dreamer is one who can only find his way by moonlight, and his punishment is that he sees the dawn before the rest of the world. Imagination is a quality given a man to compensate him for what he is not, and a sense of humor was provided to console him for what he is.”
2. “Ah! Don't say you agree with me. When people agree with me I always feel that I must be wrong.”
3. “Ah! somehow life is bigger after all
Than any painted angel could we see
The God that is within us!”
4. “A kiss may ruin a human life.”
5. “A LILY girl, not made for this world's pain,
With brown, soft hair close braided by her ears,
And longing eyes half veiled by slumbrous tears
Like bluest water seen through mists of rain;
Pale cheeks whereon no love hath left its stain,
Red underlip drawn in for fear of love,
And white throat, whiter than the silvered dove,
Through whose wan marble creeps one purple vein.
Yet, though my lips shall praise her without cease,
Even to kiss her feet I am not bold,
Being o'ershadowed by the wings of awe.
Like Dante, when he stood with Beatrice
Beneath the flaming Lion's breast and saw
The seventh Crystal, and the Stair of Gold.”
6. "A little sincerity is a dangerous thing, and a great deal of it is absolutely fatal."
7. “All art is at once surface and symbol. Those who go beneath the surface do so at their peril.”
8. “All bad poetry springs from genuine feeling.
To be natural is to be obvious,
and to be obvious is to be inartistic.”
9. “All great ideas are dangerous.”
10. “Always forgive your enemies; nothing annoys them so much.”
11. "A man cannot be too careful in the choice of his enemies."
12. "A man's face is his autobiography. A woman's face is her work of fiction."
13. "A man's very highest moment is, I have no doubt at all, when he kneels in the dust, and beats his breast, and tells all the sins of his life."
14. “A man who does not think for himself does not think at all.”
15. “A man who moralizes is usually a hypocrite, and a woman who moralizes is invariably plain.”
16. "A map of the world that does not include Utopia is not worth even glancing at, for it leaves out the one country at which Humanity is always landing."
17. ”A mask tells us more than a face.”
18. “Ambition is the last refuge of the failure.”
19. “And only tears can heal.”
20. “And we two lovers shall not sit afar,
Critics of nature, but the joyous sea
Shall be our raiment, and the bearded star
Shoot arrows at our pleasure! We shall be
Parts of the mighty universal whole,
And through all aeons mix and mingle with the Kosmic Soul!”
21. “And with tears of blood he cleansed the hand,
The hand that held the steel:
For only blood can wipe out blood,
And only tears can heal.”
22. “An idea that is not dangerous is unworthy of being called an idea at all.”
23. "Anybody can write a three-volume novel. It merely requires a complete ignorance of both life and literature."
24. “Anyone can make history. Only a great man can write it.”
25. “A pessimist is one who, when he has a choice of two evils, chooses both.”
26. “Argument's are to be avoided; they are always vulgar and often convincing.”
27. “A sentimentalist is simply one who desires to have the luxury of an emotion without paying for it.”
28. “As long as war is regarded as wicked it will always have its fascinations. When it is looked upon as vulgar, it will cease to be popular.”
29. "As one knows the poet by his fine music, so one can recognize the liar by his rich rhythmic utterance, and in neither case will the casual inspiration of the moment suffice. Here, as elsewhere, practice must precede perfection."
30. "A thing is not necessarily true because a man dies for it."
31. “A true friend stabs you in the front.”
32. "A true gentleman is one who is never unintentionally rude."
33. “A visionary is one who can find his way by moonlight, and see the dawn before the rest of the world.”
34. "Bad art is a great deal worse than no art at all."
35. “Bad artists always admire each others work.”
36. “Beauty is a form of genius--is higher, indeed, than genius, as it needs no explanation. It is of the great facts in the world like sunlight, or springtime, or the reflection in dark water of that silver shell we call the moon.”
37. ”Between men and women there is no friendship possible. There is passion, enmity, worship, love, but no friendship.”
38. "By persistently remaining single, a man converts himself into a permanent public temptation. Men should be more careful."
39. "Charity creates a multitude of sins."
40. ”Children begin by loving their parents; after a time they judge them; rarely, if ever, do they forgive them.”
41. “Consistency is the last refuge of the unimaginative.”
42. "Conversation should touch everything, but should concentrate itself on nothing."
43. “Creation for the joy of creation is the aim of the artist, and that is why the artist is a more divine type than the saint.”
44. "Cultivated leisure is the aim of man."
45. "Despotism is unjust to everybody, including the despot, who was probably made for better things."
46. “Difference of object does not alter singleness of passion. It merely intensifies it. We can have but one great experience at best, and the secret of life is to reproduce that experience as often as possible.”
47. "Discontent is the first step in the progress of a man or a nation."
48. “Disobedience, in the eyes of anyone who has read history, is man's original virtue. It is through disobedience and rebellion that progress has been made.”
49. "Do you really think it is weakness that yields to temptation? I tell you that there are terrible temptations which it requires strength, strength and courage to yield to."
50. “Dragons will wander about
the waste places,
and the phoenix will soar
from her nest of fire
into the air.
We shall lay our hands
upon the Basilisk,
and see the jewel
in the toad's head.
Champing his gilded oats,
the hippogriff will stand
in our stalls,
and over our heads
will float the bluebird,
singing of beautiful and
impossible things,
of things that are lovely
and that never happened,
of things that are not
and that should be.”
51. "Dullness is the coming of age of seriousness."
52. "Duty is what one expects of others, it is not what one does oneself."
53. "Each of the professions means a prejudice. The necessity for a career forces every one to take sides. We live in the age of the overworked, and the under-educated; the age in which people are so industrious that they become absolutely stupid."
54. ”Each time that one loves is the only time one has ever loved. Difference of object does not alter singleness of passion. It merely intensifies it. We can have but one great experience at best, and the secret of life is to reproduce that experience as often as possible.”
55. ”Education is an admirable thing, but it is well to remember from time to time that nothing that is worth knowing can be taught.”
56. "Every man lies, but give him a mask and he will be sincere."
57. ”Every portrait that is painted with feeling is a portrait of the artist, not of the sitter.”
58. ”Every woman is a rebel, and usually in wild revolt against herself.”
59. “Experience is the name everyone gives to their mistakes.”
60. "Experience is one thing you can't get for nothing."
61. “Fashion is a form of ugliness so intolerable that we have to alter it every six months.”
62. "Find expression for a sorrow, and it will become dear to you. Find expression for a joy, and you will intensify its ecstasy."
63. ”Football is all very well a good game for rough girls, but not for delicate boys.”
64. "For he who lives more lives than one: More deaths than one must die."
65. "For his mourners will be outcast men, and outcasts always mourn."
66. "Genius lasts longer than Beauty. That accounts for the fact that we all take such pains to over-educate ourselves."
67. "Gossip is charming! History is merely gossip. But scandal is gossip made tedious by morality."
68. ”He knew the precise psychological moment when to say nothing.”
69. ”He must have a truly romantic nature, for he weeps when there is nothing at all to weep about.”
70. ”He was always late on principle, his principle being that punctuality is the thief of time.”
71. "He to whom the present is the only thing that is present, knows nothing of the age in which he lives."
72. "Every woman is a rebel, and usually in wild revolt against herself."
73. "How clever you are, my dear! You never mean a single word you say."
74. "I adore simple pleasures. They are the last refuge of the complex."
75. ”I always pass on good advice. It is the only thing to do with
it. It is never of any use to oneself.”
76. “I am not young enough to know everything.”
77. “I am sick of women who love me. Women who hate me are much more interesting.”
78. “I am the only person in the world I should like to know thoroughly.”
79. ”I can believe anything as long as it is incredible.”
80. ”I can resist anything but temptation.”
81. ”I can stand brute force, but brute reason is quite unbearable. There is something unfair about its use. It is hitting below the intellect.”
82. "I can't help detesting my relations. I suppose it comes from the fact that none of us can stand other people having the same faults as ourselves."
83. "I can stand brute force, but brute reason is quite unbearable. There is something unfair about its use. It is hitting below the intellect."
84. ”I can write no stately proem
As a prelude to my lay;
From a poet to a poem
I would dare to say.
For if of these fallen petals
One to you seem fair,
Love will waft it till it settles
On your hair.
And when wind and winter harden
All the loveless land,
It will whisper of the garden,
You will understand.”
85. "I dislike modern memoirs. They are generally written by people who have either entirely lost their memories, or have never done anything worth remembering."
86. “Idleness gives one the mood in which to write, isolation the conditions.”
87. “I don't know that women are always rewarded for being charming. I think they are usually punished for it!”
88. "I really don't see anything romantic in proposing. It is very romantic to be in love. But there is nothing romantic about a definite proposal. Why, one may be accepted. One usually is, I believe. Then the excitement is all over. The very essence of romance is uncertainty."
89. “I don't think there is a woman in the world who would not be a little flattered if one made love to her. It is that which makes women so irresistibly adorable.”
90. “I don't wish to sign my name, though I am afraid everybody will know who the write is: one's style is one's signature always.”
91. "If a man treats life artistically, his brain is in his heart."
92. "If one hears bad music, it is one's duty to drown it by one's conversation."
93. ”Ignorance is like a delicate flower: touch it and the bloom is gone.”
94. "I have found that all ugly things are made by those who strive to make something beautiful, and that all beautiful things are made by those who strive to make something useful."
95. ”I hate vulgar realism in literature. The man who would call a spade a spade should be compelled to use one. It is the only thing he is fit for.”
96. “I have the simplest tastes. I am always satisfied with the best.”
97. “I hope you have not been leading a double life, pretending to be wicked and being really good all the time. That would be hypocrisy.”
98. “I know not whether Laws be right,
Or whether Laws be wrong;
All that we know who lie in gaol
Is that the wall is strong;
And that each day is like a year,
A year whose days are long.”
99. "I like persons better than principles, and I like persons with no principles better than anything else in the world."
100. "I like talking to a brick wall, I find it is the only thing that never contradicts me."
101. "I like to do all the talking myself. It saves time, and prevents arguments."
102. “I live in terror of not being misunderstood.”
103. "Illusion is the first of all pleasures."
104. "I love acting. It is so much more real than life."
105. “I may have said the same thing before...but my explanation, I am sure, will always be different.”
106. "In modern life nothing produces such an effect as a good platitude. It makes the whole world kin."
107. “I'm sure I don't know half the people who come to my house. Indeed, for all I hear, I shouldn't like to.”
108. “In all pointed sentences some degree of accuracy must be sacrificed to conciseness.”
109. “I never approve, or disapprove, of anything now. It is an absurd attitude to take towards life. We are not sent into the world to air our moral prejudices. I never take any notice of what common people say, and I never interfere with what charming people do.”
110. “I never travel without my diary. One should always have something sensational to read in the train.”
111. "In old days men had the rack. Now they have the Press."
112. “In the world there are only two tragedies. One is not getting what one wants, and the other is getting it.”
113. "I put all my genius into my life; I put only my talent into my works."
114. "It is always the unreadable that occurs."
115. "It is a dangerous thing to reform anyone."
116. "It is a great mistake for men to give up paying compliments, for when they give up saying what is charming, they give up thinking what is charming."
117. "It is a sad truth, but we have lost the faculty of giving lovely names to things. Names are everything. I never quarrel with actions. My one quarrel is with words. The man who could call a spade a spade should be compelled to use one. It is the only thing he is fit for."
118. “It is a terrible thing for a man to find out suddenly that all his life he has been speaking nothing but the truth.”
119. "It is because Humanity has never known where it was going that it has been able to find its way."
120. “It is better to be beautiful than to be good. But it is better to be good than to be ugly.”
121. "It is better to have a permanent income than to be fascinating."
122. “It is Nature who makes our artists for us, though it may be Art who taught them their right mode of expression.”
123. “It is perfectly monstrous the way people go about, nowadays, saying things against on behind one's back that are absolutely and entirely true.”
124. “It is only about things that do not interest one that one can give a really unbiased opinion, which is no doubt the reason why an unbiased opinion is always valueless.”
125. ”It is only shallow people who do not judge by appearances. The true mystery of the world is the visible, not the invisible.”
126. "It is only the superficial qualities that last. Man's deeper nature is soon found out."
127. ”It is only the unimaginative who ever invents. The true artist is known by the use he makes of what he annexes.”
”It is the spectator, and not life, that art really mirrors.”
128. ”It is through Art, and through Art only, that we can realize our perfection.”
129. ”It is what you read when you don't have to that determines what you will be when you can't help it.”
130. “It takes a thoroughly good woman to do a thoroughly stupid thing.”
131. "I think that God, in creating man, somewhat overestimated his ability."
132. "I was saying," continued the Rocket, "I was saying - What was I saying?" "You were talking about yourself," replied the Roman Candle. "Of course; I knew I was discussing some interesting subject when I was so rudely interrupted."
133. “I was working on the proof of one of my poems all the morning, and took out a comma. In the afternoon I put it back again.”
134. “Keep love in your heart. A life without it is like a sunless garden when the flowers are dead. The consciousness of loving and being loved brings a warmth and richness to life that nothing else can bring.”
135. ”"Know Thyself" was written over the portal of the antique world. Over the portal of the new world, "Be Thyself" shall be written.”
136. "Life has been your art. You have set yourself to music. Your days are your sonnets."
137. “Life is far too important a thing ever to talk seriously about.”
138. ”Life is one fool thing after another where as love is two fool things after each other.”
139. "Life, Lady Stutfield, is simply a mauvais quart d'heure made up of exquisite moments."
140. "Literature always anticipates life. It does not copy it, but moulds it to its purpose. The nineteenth century, as we know it, is largely an invention of Balzac."
141. "Lord Illingworth: All women become like their mothers. That is their tragedy. Mrs. Allonby: No man does. That is his."
142. ”Man can believe the impossible, but can never believe the improbable.”
143. "Man is least himself when he talks in his own person. Give him a mask, and he will tell you the truth."
144. “Memory... is the diary that we all carry about with us.”
145. “Men always want to be a woman's first love - women like to be a man's last romance.”
146. "Man can believe the impossible, but man can never believe the improbable."
147. "Man is made for something better than disturbing dirt."
148. "Men always want to be a woman's first love. Women have a more subtle instinct: What they like is to be a man's last romance."
149. “Men are horribly tedious when they are good husbands, and abominably conceited when they are not.”
150. “Men become old, but they never become good.”
151. “Men marry because they are tired; women because they are curious. Both are disappointed.”
152. “Mere colour, unspoiled by meaning, and unallied with definite form, can speak to the soul in a thousand different ways.”
153. "Misfortunes one can endure -- they come from outside, they are accidents. But to suffer for one's own faults -- Ah! there is the sting of life."
154. “Moderation is a fatal thing. Enough is as bad as a meal. More than enough is as good as a feast.”
155. “Moderation is a fatal thing. Nothing succeeds like excess.”
156. ”Morality is simply the attitude we adopt towards people whom we personally dislike.”
157. “Most modern calendars mar the sweet simplicity of our lives by reminding us that each day that passes is the anniversary of some perfectly uninteresting event.”
158. "Most of our modern portrait painters are doomed to absolute oblivion. They never paint what they see. They paint what the public sees, and the public never sees anything."
159. “Most people are other people. Their thoughts are someone else's opinions, their lives a mimicry, their passions a quotation.”
160. "Murder is always a mistake. One should never do anything that one cannot talk about after dinner."
161. "My experience is that as soon as people are old enough to know better, they don't know anything at all."
162. "My great mistake, the fault for which I can't forgive myself, is that one day I ceased my obstinate pursuit of my own individuality."
163. ”No great artist ever sees things as they really are. If he did, he would cease to be an artist.”
164. “No man is rich enough to buy back his past.”
165. "None of us can stand other people having the same faults as ourselves."
166. “Nothing can cure the soul but the senses, just as nothing can cure the senses but the soul.”
167. "Nothing can cure the soul but the senses, just as nothing can cure the senses but the soul."
168. “Nothing is so aggravating than calmness.”
169. "Nothing looks so like innocence as an indiscretion."
170. "Nothing makes one so vain as being told that one is a sinner."
171. “Nothing spoils a romance so much as a sense of humour in the woman.”
172. "Nowadays most people die of a sort of creeping common sense, and discover when it is too late that the only things one never regrets are one's mistakes. "
173. "No work of art ever puts forward views. Views belong to people who are not artists."
174. "Oh, duty is what one expects from others, it is not what one does oneself."
175. “On an occasion of this kind it becomes more than a moral duty to speak one's mind. It becomes a pleasure.”
176. "One can only give an unbiased opinion about things that do not interest one, which is no doubt the reason an unbiased opinion is always valueless. The man who sees both sides of a question is a man who sees absolutely nothing."
177. ”One can survive everything nowadays, except death, and live down anything except a good reputation.”
178. “One is absolutely sickened, not by the crimes that the wicked have committed, but by the punishments that the good have inflicted; and a community is infinitely more brutalised by the habitual employment of punishment than it is by the occasional occurence of crime.”
179. "One's past is what one is. It is the only way by which people should be judged."
180. "One should always be a little improbable."
181. "One should always be in love. That is the reason one should never marry."
182. “One should always play fairly when one has the winning cards.”
183. “Only dull people are brilliant at breakfast.”
184. “Only the shallow know themselves.”
185. "On an occasion of this kind it becomes more than a moral duty to speak one's mind. It becomes a pleasure."
186. "One's real life is so often the life that one does not lead."
187. ”Ordinary riches can be stolen; real riches cannot. In your soul are infinitely precious things that cannot be taken from you.”
188. “Other people are quite dreadful. The only possible society is oneself.”
189. “Paradoxically though it may seem, it is none the less true that life imitates art far more than art imitates life.”
190. “Patriotism is the virtue of the vicious.”
191. “People sometimes inquire what form of government is most suitable for an artist to live under. To this question there is only one answer. The form of government that is most suitable to the artist is no government at all.”
192. “People who count their chickens before they are hatched, act very wisely, because chickens run about so absurdly that it is impossible to count them accurately.”
193. “Pleasure is Nature's test, her sign of approval. When a man is happy, he is in harmony with himself and his environment.”
194. “Punctuality is the thief of time.”
195. "Questions are never indiscreet. Answers sometimes are."
196. “Relations are simply a tedious pack of people, who haven't got the remotest knowledge of how to live, nor the smallest instinct about when to die.”
197. "Religions die when they are proved to be true. Science is the record of dead religions."
198. “Science is the record of dead religions.”
199. "Selfishness is not living as one wishes to live; it is asking others to live as one wishes to live. And unselfishness is letting other people's lives alone, not interfering with them. Selfishness always aims at uniformity of type. Unselfishness recognizes infinite variety of type as a delightful thing, accepts it, acquiesces in it, enjoys it."
200. ”Seriousness is the only refuge of the shallow.”
201. "She is absolutely inadmissible into society. Many a woman has a past, but I am told that she has at least a dozen, and that they all fit."
202. "Skepticism is the beginning of Faith."
203. "Society exists only as a mental concept; in the real world there are only individuals."
204. “Society often forgives the criminal; it never forgives the dreamer.”
205. "Some cause happiness wherever they go, others whenever they go."
206. “Success is a science; if you have the conditions, you get the result.”
207. "Sympathy with joy intensifies the sum of sympathy in the world, sympathy with pain does not really diminish the amount of pain."
208. "Talk to every woman as if you loved her, and to every man as if he bored you, and at the end of your first season you will have the reputation of possessing the most perfect social tact."
209. "That is what the highest criticism really is, the record of one's own soul. It is more fascinating than history, as it is concerned simply with oneself. It is more delightful than philosophy, as its subject is concrete and not abstract, real and not vague. It is the only civilized form of autobiography."
210. “The advantage of the emotions is that they lead us astray.”
211. "The amount of women in London who flirt with their own husbands is perfectly scandalous. It looks so bad. It is simply washing one's clean linen in public."
212. "The basis of optimism is sheer terror."
213. "The best way to make children good is to make them happy."
214. "The body sins once, and has done with its sin, for action is a mode of purification. Nothing remains then but the recollection of a pleasure, or the luxury of a regret."
215. “The Book of Life begins with a man and woman in a garden. It ends with Revelation.”
216. “The books that the world calls immoral are the books that show the world its own shame.”
217. "The brotherhood of man is not a mere poet's dream: it is a most depressing and humiliating reality."
218. ”The condition of perfection is idleness: the aim of perfection is youth.”
219. “The consciousness of loving and being loved brings a warmth and richness to life that nothing else can bring.”
220. "The critic has to educate the public; the artist has to educate the critic."
221. ”The difference between literature and journalism is that journalism is unreadable and literature is not read.”
222. “The fact is, that civilization requires slaves. The Greeks were quite right there. Unless there are slaves to do the ugly, horrible, uninteresting work, culture and contemplation become almost impossible. Human slavery is wrong, insecure, and demoralizing. On mechanical slavery, on the slavery of the machine, the future of the world depends.”
223. "The first duty of life is to be as artificial as possible. What the second duty is no one as yet discovered."
224. ”The good ended happily,and the bad unhappily. That is what Fiction means.”
225. "The greatest of all sins is stupidity."
226. "The great events of life often leave one unmoved; they pass out of consciousness, and, when one thinks of them, become unreal. Even the scarlet flowers of passion seem to grow in the same meadow as the poppies of oblivion."
227. "The great things in life are what they seem to be. And for that reason, strange as it may sound to you, often are very difficult to interpret (understand). Great passion are for the great of souls. Great events can only be seen by people who are on a level with them. We think we can have our visions for nothing. We cannot. Even the finest and most self-sacrificing visions have to paid for. Strangely enough, that is what makes them fine."
228. "The Ideal Man should talk to us as if we were goddesses, and treat us as if we were children. He should refuse all our serious requests, and gratify every one of our whims. He should encourage us to have caprices, and forbid us to have missions. He should always say much more than he means, and always mean much more than he says."
229. “The imagination imitates. It is the critical spirit that creates.”
230. "The intellect is not a serious thing, and never has been. It is an instrument on which one plays, that is all."
231. "The liar at any rate recognizes that recreation, not instruction, is the aim of conversation, and is a far more civilized being than the blockhead who loudly expresses his disbelief in a story which is told simply for the amusement of the company."
232. "The man who says he has exhausted life generally means that life has exhausted him."
233. “The mind of a the thoroughly well-informed man is a dreadful thing. It is like a bric-a-brac shop, all monsters and dust, with everything priced above its proper value.”
234. "The moral life of man forms part of the subject matter of the artist, but the morality of art consists in the perfect use of an imperfect medium."
235. “The more one analyses people, the more all reasons for analysis disappear. Sooner of later one comes to that dreadful universal thing called human nature.”
236. ”The newspapers chronicle with degrading avidity the subs of the second-rate, and with the conscientiousness of the illiterate give us accurate and prosaic details of the doings of people of absolutely no interest whatever.”
237. “The old believe everything; the middle aged suspect everything: the young know everything.”
238. ”The only difference between the saint and the sinner is that every saint has a past, and every sinner a future.”
239. “The only thing one can do with good advice is to pass it on. It is never of any use to oneself.”
240. "The only thing that ever consoles man for the stupid things he does is the praise he always gives himself for doing them."
241. ”The only way to get rid of a temptation is to yield to it. Resist it, and your soul grows sick with longing for the things it has forbidden to itself.”
242. "The past is of no importance.
The present is of no importance.
It is with the future that we have to deal.
For the past is what man should not have been.
The present is what man ought not to be.
The future is what artists are."
243. “The play was a great success, but the audience was a disaster.”
244. “The proper school to learn art is not life but art.”
245. “The public is wonderfully tolerant. It forgives everything except genius.”
246. “The public has an insatiable curiosity to know everything. Except what is worth knowing. Journalism, conscious of this, and having tradesman-like habits, supplies their demands.”
247. "The pure and simple truth is rarely pure and never simple."
248. "There are many things that we would throw away if we were not afraid that others might pick them up."
249. ”There are only two kinds of people who are really fascinating - people who know absolutely everything, and people who know absolutely nothing.”
250. "There are three kinds of despots. There is the despot who tyrannizes over the body. There is the despot who tyrannizes over the soul. There is the despot who tyrannizes over the soul and body alike. The first is called the Prince. The second is called the Church. The third is called the People."
251. “There are two ways of disliking art. One is to dislike it. The other is to like it rationally.”
252. "There is no such thing as morality or immorality in thought. There is immoral emotion."
253. “The reason we all like to think so well of others is that we are all afraid for ourselves. The basis of optimism is sheer terror.”
254. "There is always something infinitely mean about other people's tragedies."
255. "There is always something ridiculous about the emotions of people whom one has ceased to love."
256. “There is luxury in self-reproach. When we blame ourselves, we feel no one else has a right to blame us.”
257. "There is much to be said in favor of modern journalism. By giving us the opinions of the uneducated, it keeps us in touch with the ignorance of the community. By carefully chronicling the current events of contemporary life, it shows us of what very little importance such events really are. By invariably discussing the unnecessary, it makes us understand what things are requisite for culture, and what are not."
258. "There is no sin except stupidity."
259. “There is no such thing as a moral book or an immoral book. Books are well written or badly written. That is all.”
260. “There is nothing in the world like the devotion of a married woman. It's a thing no married man knows anything about. Women love men for their defects; if men have enough of them women will forgive them everything, even their gigantic intellects.”
261. "There is one thing infinitely more pathetic than to have lost the one you are in love with, and that is to have won them and then find how how shallow they are."
262. "There is only one thing in the world worse than being talked about, and that is not being talked about."
263. ”There is only one real tragedy in a woman's life. The fact that the past is always her lover, and her future invariably her husband.”
264. "There is no such thing as an omen. Destiny does not send us heralds. She is too wise or too cruel for that."
265. "There is something terribly morbid in the modern sympathy with pain. One should sympathize with the color, the beauty, the joy of life. The less said about life's sores the better."
266. "The State is to make what is useful. The individual is to make what is beautiful."
267. “The soul is born old but grows young. That is the comedy of life. And the body is born young and grows old. That is life's tragedy.”
268. ”The suspense is terrible, I hope it will last.”
269. “The tragedy of old age is not that one is old, but that one is young.”
270. "The true critic is he who bears within himself the dreams and ideas and feelings of myriad generations, and to whom no form of thought is alien, no emotional impulse obscure."]
271. ”The true mystery of the world is the visible, not the invisible.”
272. "The true perfection of man lies, not in what man has, but in what man is. Nothing should be able to harm a man but himself. Nothing should be able to rob a man at all. What a man really has is what is in him. What is outside of him should be a matter of no importance."
273. "The value of an idea has nothing whatever to do with the sincerity of the man who expresses it."
274. "The way of paradoxes is the way of truth. To test Reality we must see it on the tight-rope. When the Verities become acrobats we can judge them."
275. “The well-bred contradict other people. The wise contradict themselves.”
276. “The world is a stage, but the play is badly cast.”
277. "The world was my oyster, but I used the wrong fork."
278. “The worst vice of a fanatic is his sincerity.”
279. “Things are because we see them, and what we see, and how we see it, depends on the arts that have influenced us. To look at a thing is very different from seeing a thing. One does not see anything until one sees its beauty.”
280. “This suspense is terrible. I hope it will last.”
281. "Those who are faithful know only the trivial side of love: it is the faithless who know love's tragedies."
282. ”Those whom the gods love grow young.”
283. "Through our sunless lanes creeps Poverty with her hungry eyes, and Sin with his sodden face follows close behind her. Misery wakes us in the morning and Shame sits with us at night."
284. “Time is a waste of money.”
285. "To become a spectator of one's own life is to escape the suffering of life."
286. “To believe is very dull. To doubt is intensely engrossing. To be on the alert is to live, to be lulled into security is to die.”
287. “To be natural is such a very difficult pose to keep up.”
288. "To do nothing at all is the most difficult thing in the world, the most difficult and the most intellectual."
289. "To live is the rarest thing in the world. Most people exist, that it all.”
290. "To love oneself is the beginning of a lifelong romance."
291. "To make a good salad is to be a brilliant diplomatist -- the problem is entirely the same in both cases. To know exactly how much oil one must put with one's vinegar."
292. ”To regret one's own experiences is to arrest one's own development. To deny one's own experiences is to put a lie into the lips of one's life. It is no less than a denial of the soul.”
293. "Vulgarity is the conduct of other people, just as falsehoods are the truths of other people."
294. "We are all of us in the gutter, but some of us are looking up at the stars."
295. “We are each our own devil, and we make this world our hell.”
296. “We can forgive a man for making a useful thing as long as he does not admire it. The only excuse for making a useless thing is that one admires it intensely. All art is quite useless.”
297. "We can have in life but one great experience at best, and the secret of life is to reproduce that experience as often as possible."
298. "We live in an age when unnecessary things are our only necessities."
299. “We shall be notes in that great Symphony
Whose cadence circles through the rhythmic spheres,
And all the live World's throbbing heart shall be
One with our heart, the stealthy creeping years
Have lost their terrors now, we shall not die,
The Universe itself shall be our Immortality!”
300. “We teach people how to remember, we never teach them how to grow.”
301. "What a fuss people make about fidelity! Why, even in love it is purely a question for physiology. It has nothing to do with our own will. Young men want to be faithful, and are not; old men want to be faithless, and cannot: that is all one can say."
302. “What is a cynic? A man who knows the price of everything and the value of nothing.”
303. “What is mind but motion in the intellectual sphere?”
304. "What is said of a man is nothing. The point is, who says it."
305. "What is termed Sin is an essential element of progress. Without it the world would stagnate, or grow old, or become colorless. By its curiosity Sin increases the experience of the race. Through its intensified assertion of individualism it saves us from monotony of type. In its rejection of the current notions about morality, it is one with the higher ethics."
306. "When a man has once loved a woman, he will do anything for her, except continue to love her."
307. "Whenever a man does a thoroughly stupid thing, it is always from the noblest motives."
308. “Whenever people agree with me I always feel I must be wrong.”
309. “When one is in love one begins by deceiving oneself, one ends by deceiving others. That is what the world calls romance.
310. "When one pays a visit it is for the purpose of wasting other people's time, not one's own."
311. “When the gods choose to punish us, they merely answer our prayers.”
312. “When the work is finished it has, as it were, an independent life of its own, and may deliver a message far other than that which was put in its lips to say.”
313. ”When we are happy we are always good, but when we are good we are not always happy.”
314. "Where there is no extravagance there is no love, and where there is no love there is no understanding."
315. "Where there is sorrow there is holy ground."
316. “While one should always study the method of a great artist, one should never imitate his manner. The manner of an artist is essentially individual, the method of an artist is absolutely universal. The first is personality, which no one should copy; the second is perfection, which all should aim at.”
317. ”Who, being loved, is poor?”
318. "Wickedness is a myth invented by good people to account for the curious attractiveness of others."
319. “Women are meant to be loved, not to be understood.”
320. “Women are never disarmed by compliments. Men always are.That is the difference between the sexes.”
321. “Women have a much better time than men in this world. There are far more things forbidden to them.”
322. "Women love us for our defects. If we have enough of them, they will forgive us everything, even our gigantic intellects."
323. “Women represent the triumph of matter over mind, just as men represent the triumph of mind over morals.”
324. "Writing is not something to be ashamed of; however, do it in private and wash your hands afterwards."
325. “Yes: I am a dreamer. For a dreamer is one who can only find his way by moonlight, and his punishment is that he sees the dawn before the rest of the world.”
326. "Yet each man kills the thing he loves,
By each let this be heard,
Some do it with a bitter look,
Some with a flattering word,
The coward does it with a kiss,
The brave man with a sword!"
327. “You must not find symbols in everything you see. It makes life impossible.”
328. “Young men want to be faithful and are not; old men want to be faithless and cannot.”
