People say that life is the thing, but I prefer reading.
The notion of making money by popular work, and then retiring to do good work, is the most familiar of all the devil’s traps for artists.
Every author, however modest, keeps a most outrageous vanity chained like a madman in the padded cell of his breast.
How many of our daydreams would darken into nightmaresif there seemed any danger of their coming true!
What I like in a good author is not what he says, but what he whispers.
The denunciation of the young is a necessary part of the hygiene of older people and greatly assists the circulation of their blood.
One can be bored until boredom becomes a mystical experience.
Those who set out to serve both God and Mammon soon discover that there is no God.
What is more mortifying than to feel that you have missed the plum for want of courage to shake the tree?
I cannot forgive my friends for dying: I do not find these vanishing acts of theirs at all amusing.
There are two things to aim at in life: first to get what you want and after that to enjoy it.
How can they say my life is not a success? Have I not for more than sixty years gotten enough to eat and escaped being eaten?
We need new friends. Some of us are cannibals who have eaten their old friends up others must have ever-renewed audiences before whom to re-enact an ideal version of their lives.
Don’t tell your friends their social faults they will cure the fault and never forgive you.
Don’t tell your friends their social faults they will cure the fault and never forgive you.
We need new friends. Some of us are cannibals who have eaten their old friends up others must have ever-renewed audiences before whom to re-enact an ideal version of their lives.
There are two things to aim at in life: first to get what you want and after that to enjoy it. Only the wisest of mankind achieve the second.
The test of enjoyment is the remembrance which it leaves behind.
There are two things to aim at in life: first to get what you want and after that to enjoy it. Only the wisest of mankind achieve the second.
Married women are kept women and they are beginning to find it out.
The wretchedness of being rich is that you live with rich people.
Most people sell their souls and live with a good conscience on the proceeds.
What humbugs we are who pretend to live for Beauty and never see the Dawn!
Charming people live up to the very edge of their charm and behave as outrageously as the world will let them.
How it infuriates a bigot when he is forced to drag out his dark convictions!
It is the wretchedness of being rich that you have to live with rich people.
The test of a vocation is the love of the drudgery it involves.
Solvency is entirely a matter of temperament not of income.
Self-respecting people do not care to peep at their reflections in unexpected mirrors or to see themselves as others see them.
There are few sorrows however poignant in which a good income is of no avail.
How can they say my life isn’t a success? Have I not for more than sixty years got enough to eat and escaped being eaten?
What is more mortifying than to feel that you have missed the plum for want of courage to shake the tree?
How can they say my life is not a success? Have I not for more than sixty years got enough to eat and escaped being eaten?
It is the wretchedness of being rich that you have to live with rich people.
There are few sorrows however poignant in which a good income is of no avail.
The test of a vocation is the love of the drudgery it involves.
The test of a vocation is the love of the drudgery it involves.
What I like in a good author is not what he says but what he whispers.
Every author however modest keeps a most outrageous vanity chained like a madman in the padded cell of his breast.
Don’t laugh at a youth for his affectations he’s only trying on one face after another till he finds his own.
What I like in a good author is not what he says but what he whispers.
The denunciation of the young is a necessary part of the hygiene of older people, and greatly assists the circulation of the blood.
Happiness is a wine of the rarest vintage, and seems insipid to a vulgar taste.
If you want to be thought a liar, always tell the truth.
What is more mortifying than to feel that you have missed the plum for want of courage to shake the tree?
We need two kinds of acquaintances, one to complain to, while to the others we boast.
The vitality of a new movement in Art must be gauged by the fury it arouses.
The old know what they want the young are sad and bewildered.
It takes a great man to give sound advice tactfully, but a greater to accept it graciously.
How can they say my life is not a success? Have I not for more than sixty years got enough to eat and escaped being eaten?