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.
I quite agree with Dr. Nordau’s assertion that all men of genius are insane, but Dr. Nordau forgets that all sane people are idiots.
You can’t possibly ask me to go without having some dinner. It’s absurd. I never go without my dinner. No one ever does, except vegetarians and people like that.
Rich bachelors should be heavily taxed. It is not fair that some men should be happier than others.
To be in love is to surpass one’s self.
Be happy, be happy; you shall have your red rose. I will build it out of music by moonlight, and stain it with my own heart’s-blood. All that I ask of you in return is that you will be a true lover, for Love is wiser than Philosophy, though she is wise, and mightier than Power, though he is mighty.
When one has never heard a man’s name in the course of one’s life, it speaks volumes for him; he must be quite respectable.
By persistently remaining single a man converts himself into a permanent public temptation.
Beauty is the only thing that time cannot harm.
I regard the theatre as the greatest of all art forms, the most immediate way in which a human being can share with another the sense of what it is to be a human being.
Too much work, and no vacation, Deserves at least a small libation. So hail! my friends, and raise your glasses, Work’s the curse of the drinking classes.
Art never expresses anything but itself.
There can be nothing more frequent than an occasional drink.
To have become a deeper man is the privilege of those who have suffered.
Books are never finished. They are merely abandoned.
We are never more true to ourselves than when we are inconsistent.
I don’t at all like knowing what people say of me behind my back. It makes me far too conceited.
Like dear St. Francis of Assisi I am wedded to Poverty: but in my case the marriage is not a success.
Good resolutions are simply checks that men draw on a bank where they have no account.
To give and not expect return, that is what lies at the heart of love.