Quote collection
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"Walt Whitman and Emerson are the poets who have given the world more than anyone else. Perhaps Whitman is not so widely read in England, but England never appreciates a poet until he is dead."
"The one charm of marriage is that it makes a life of deception absolutely necessary for both parties."
"Music is the art which is most nigh to tears and memories."
"Salomé, Salomé, dance for me. I pray thee dance for me. I am sad to-night. Yes, I am passing sad to-night. When I came hither I slipped in blood, which is an evil omen; and I heard, I am sure I heard in the air a beating of wings, a beating of giant wings. I cannot tell what they mean .... I am sad to-night. Therefore dance for me. Dance for me, Salomé, I beseech you. If you dance for me you may ask of me what you will, and I will give it you, even unto the half of my kingdom."
"And if it feels good... Feel it!"
"Being natural is simply a pose, and the most irritating pose I know."
"The gods have been good to you. But what the gods give they quickly take away. You have only a few years in which to live really, perfectly, and fully. When your youth goes, your beauty will go with it, and then you will suddenly discover that there are no triumphs left for you, or have to content yourself with those mean triumphs that the memory of your past will make more bitter than defeats. Every month as it wanes bring you nearer to something dreadful. Time is jealous of you, and wars against your lilies and your roses."
"Nothing makes one so vain as being told that one is a sinner."
"The tragedy of growing old is not that one is old but that one is young."
"Ah, on what little things does happiness depend! I have read all that the wise men have written, and all the secrets of philosophy are mine, yet for want of a red rose is my life made wretched."
"Oh, I love London Society! It is entirely composed now of beautiful idiots and brilliant lunatics. Just what Society should be."
"I have grown to love secrecy. It seems to be the one thing that can make modern life mysterious or marvelous to us. The commonest thing is delightful if only one hides it."
"As for the virtuous poor, one can pity them, of course, but one cannot possibly admire them. They have made private terms with the enemy, and sold their birthright for very bad pottage. They must also be extraordinarily stupid."
"I tried to visit Albania but I couldn't find it on the map."
"The world is a stage, but the play is badly cast."
"At twilight, nature is not without loveliness, though perhaps its chief use is to illustrate quotations from the poets."
"The moment you think you understand a great work of art, it's dead for you."
"I often take exercise. Why only yesterday I had breakfast in bed."
"Now and then the fantastic shadows of birds in flight flitted across the long tussore-silk curtains that were stretched in front of the huge window, producing a kind of momentary Japanese effect, and making him think of those pallid, jade-faced painters of Tokyo who, through the medium of an art that is necessarily immobile, seek to convey the sense of swiftness and motion."
"Taking sides is the beginning of sincerity, and earnestness follows shortly afterwards, and the human being becomes a bore."