It is the confession, not the priest, that gives us absolution.
Things are because we see them, and what we see, and how we see it, depends on the Arts that influenced us. To look at a thing is very different from seeing a thing. One does not see anything until one sees its beauty. Then, and then only, does it comes into existence.
He lives the poetry that he cannot write. The others write the poetry that they dare not realize.
Anybody can make history; only a great man can write it.
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.
Every man of ambition has to fight his century with its own weapons. What this century worships is wealth. The God of this century is wealth. To succeed one must have wealth. At all costs one must have wealth.
A pessimist is somebody who complains about the noise when opportunity knocks.
Hesitation of any kind is a sign of mental decay in the young, of physical weakness in the old.
The birds that were singing in the dew-drenched garden seemed to be telling the flowers about her.
Surely Love is a wonderful thing. It is more precious than emeralds, and dearer than fine opals. Pearls and pomegranates cannot buy it, nor is it set forth in the marketplace. It may not be purchased of the merchants, for can it be weighed out in the balance for gold.
I have spent most of the day putting in a comma and the rest of the day taking it out.
One’s days were too brief to take the burden of another’s errors on one’s shoulders. Each man lived his own life and paid his own price for living it.
Nothing annoys people so much as not receiving invitations.
Sins of the flesh are nothing. They are maladies for physicians to cure, if they should be cured. Sins of the soul alone are shameful.
She wore far too much rouge last night and not quite enough clothes. That is always a sign of despair in a woman.
The artistic life is a long, lovely suicide.
A flower blossoms for its own joy.
A mask tells us more than a face.
She lives the poetry she cannot write.
Circumstances should never alter principles!