"

It is sometimes said that the tragedy of an artist's life is that he cannot realize his ideal. But the true tragedy that dogs the steps of most artist...more

"

Cold were the lips, yet he kissed them. Salt was the honey of the hair, yet he tasted it with a bitter joy. He kissed the closed eyelids, and the wild...more

"

Even men of the noblest possible moral character are extremely susceptible to the influence of the physical charms of others. Modern, no less then Anc...more

"

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.

"

I am less to you than your ivory Hermes or your silver Faun. You will like them always. How long will you like me? Till I have my first wrinkle, I sup...more

"

I am jealous of everything whose beauty does not die. I am jealous of the portrait you have painted of me. Why should it keep what I must lose? Every ...more

"

I find him in the curves of certain lines, in the loveliness and subtleties of certain colours.

"

Those who find ugly meanings in beautiful things are corrupt without being charming. This is a fault.

"

As long as a woman can look ten years younger than her daughter, she is perfectly satisfied

"

...art had no moral responsibility. Art, he argued, should strive only to be a beautiful object entirely separate from its creator.

"

The aim of life is self-development. To realize one's nature perfectly—that is what each of us is here for. People are afraid of themselves, nowadays....more

"

You come down here to console me. That is charming of you. You find me consoled, and you are furious. How like a sympathetic person!

"

But beauty, real beauty, ends where an intellectual expression begins. Intellect is in itself a mode of exaggeration, and destroys the harmony of any ...more

"

Those who find ugly meanings in beautiful things are corrupt without being charming. This is a fault. Those who find beautiful meanings in beautiful t...more

"

Behind every exquisite thing that existed, there was something tragic. World's had to be in travail, that the meanest flower might blow...