Do you really think that it is weakness that yields to temptation? I tell you that there are terrible temptations that it requires strength, strength and courage, to yield to.
Discontent is the first step in the progress of a man or a nation.
Democracy means simply the bludgeoning of the people by the people for the people.
Death must be so beautiful. To lie in the soft brown earth, with the grasses waving above one’s head, and listen to silence. To have no yesterday, and no to-morrow. To forget time, to forgive life, to be at peace.[The Canterville Ghost]
Death and vulgarity are the only two facts in the nineteenth century that one cannot explain away.
Children begin by loving their parents. After a time they judge them. Rarely if ever do they forgive them.
Charity creates a multitude of sins.
But then one regrets the loss even of one’s worst habits. Perhaps one regrets them the most. They are such an essential part of one’s personality.
Between men and women there is no friendship possible. There is passion, enmity, worship, love, but no friendship.
Behind every exquisite thing that existed, there was something tragic.
As long as a woman can look ten years younger than her own daughter, she is perfectly satisfied.
Art should never try to be popular. The public should try to make itself artistic.