One’s past is what one is. It is the only way by which people should be judged.
Everything popular is wrong.
The only way to get rid of temptation is to yield to it… I can resist everything but temptation.
Do you really think it is weakness that yields to temptation? I tell you that there are terrible temptations which it requires strength, strength and courage to yield to.
The books that the world calls immoral are books that show the world its own shame.
One of the many lessons that one learns in prison is, that things are what they are and will be what they will be.
The world is divided into two classes, those who believe the incredible, and those who do the improbable.
The imagination imitates. It is the critical spirit that creates.
All bad poetry springs from genuine feeling.
Most people die of a sort of creeping common sense, and discover when it is too late that the only things one never regrets are one’s mistakes.
I have the simplest tastes. I am always satisfied with the best.
When good Americans die they go to Paris.
America is the only country that went from barbarism to decadence without civilisation in between.
Women are made to be loved, not understood.
I suppose society is wonderfully delightful. To be in it is merely a bore. But to be out of it is simply a tragedy.
I sometimes think that God in creating man somewhat overestimated his ability.
We have really everything in common with America nowadays, except, of course, language.
An idea that is not dangerous is unworthy of being called an idea at all.
The only thing to do with good advice is to pass it on. It is never of any use to oneself.
In modern life nothing produces such an effect as a good platitude. It makes the whole world kin.