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.
The Universe is change, life is opinion.[ὁ κόσμος ἀλλοίωσις, ὁ βίος ὑπόληψις.]
The truth of these days is not that which really is, but what every man persuades another man to believe.[Nostre verité de maintenant, ce n’est pas ce qui est, mais ce qui se persuade à autruy.]
The perception of beauty is a moral test.
The outward form – it is a bagatelle – but it matters to people. It enables them to keep the amour propre.
The jewel that we find, we stoop and take it because we see it; but what we do not see we tread upon, and never think of it.
The greatest defect of perspicacity is not stopping short of its goal but going beyond it.[Le plus grand défaut de la pénétration n’est pas de n’aller point jusqu’au but, c’est de le passer.]
The apparel oft proclaims the man.
The “paradox” is only a conflict between reality and your feeling of what reality “ought to be.”
Tell all the Truth but tell it slant —
Some people’s faults are becoming, other people’s virtues prove drawbacks.[Il y a des personnes à qui les défauts siéent bien, et d’autres qui sont disgraciées avec leurs bonnes qualités.]
