Young men want to be faithful, and are not. Old men want to be faithless, and cannot.
The security of Society lies in custom and unconscious instinct, and the basis of the stability of Society, as a healthy organism, is the complete absence of any intelligence amongst its members.
A work of art is the unique result of a unique temperament.
There is nothing in the world like the devotion of a married woman. It is a thing no married man knows anything about.
By giving us the opinions of the uneducated, journalism keeps us in touch with the ignorance of the community.
He has no enemies, but is intensely disliked by his friends.
To expect the unexpected shows a thoroughly modern intellect.
Who, being loved, is poor?
Hatred is blind, as well as love.
In America the President reigns for four years, and Journalism governs forever and ever.
The only way to behave to a woman is to make love to her if she is pretty, and to someone else if she is plain.
He had that curious love of green, which in individuals is always the sign of a subtle artistic temperament, and in nations is said to denote a laxity, if not a decadence of morals.
There were moments when he looked on evil simply as a mode through which he could realize his conception of the beautiful.
When a man is old enough to do wrong he should be old enough to do right also.
The studio was filled with the rich odour of roses, and when the light summer wind stirred amidst the trees of the garden, there came through the open door the heavy scent of the lilac, or the more delicate perfume of the pink-flowering thorn.
Religions die when they are proved to be true. Science is the record of dead religions.
Most people live for love and admiration. But it is by love and admiration that we should live.
One should either be a work of art, or wear a work of art.
I don’t write this letter to put bitterness into your heart, but to pluck it out of mine. For my own sake I must forgive you.
If I am occasionally a little over-dressed, I make up for it by being always immensely over-educated.