Цитаты из книги Selections. Volume one

I have grown to love secrecy. It seems to be the one thing that can make modern life mysterious or marvellous to us.

The nineteenth century dislike of realism is the rage of Caliban seeing his own face in a glass. The nineteenth century dislike of romanticism is the rage of Caliban not seeing his own face in a glass.

Самые нелепые поступки человек совершает всегда из благородных побуждений.

Мы приписываем нашим близким те добродетели, из которых можем извлечь выгоду для себя, и воображаем, что делаем это из великодушия.

Подлинная красота пропадает там, где появляется одухотворенность.

Во всяком искусстве есть то, что лежит на поверхности, и символ

The tragedy of old age is not that one is old, but that one is young.

Of course, married life is merely a habit, a bad habit. But then one regrets the loss even of one's worst habits. Perhaps one regrets them the most. They are such an essential part of one's personality.

We women, as some one says, love with our ears, just as you men love with your eyes, if you ever love at all.

Every effect that one produces gives one an enemy. To be popular one must be a mediocrity.

Scepticism is the beginning of faith.

I admit that I think that it is better to be beautiful than to be good. But on the other hand, no one is more ready than I am to acknowledge that it is better to be good than to be ugly.

It is a sad truth, but we have lost the faculty of giving lovely names to things. Names are everything. I never quarrel with actions; my one quarrel is with words. That is the reason I hate vulgar realism in literature. A man who could call a spade a spade should be compelled to use one.

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. The only pity was one had to pay so often for a single fault. One had to pay over and over again, indeed. In her dealings with man, destiny never closed her accounts.

Moderation is a fatal thing. Enough is as bad as a meal. More than enough is as good as a feast.

Women love us for our defects. If we have enough of them, they will forgive us everything, even our intellects.

A man can be happy with any woman, as long as he does not love her.

When a woman marries again, it is because she detested her first husband. When a man marries again, it is because he adored his first wife. Women try their luck; men risk theirs.

It is perfectly monstrous the way people go about nowadays saying things against one behind one's back that are absolutely and entirely true.

The husbands of very beautiful women belong to the criminal classes.