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. They have forgotten the highest of all duties, the duty that one owes to one’s self.

The only way to get rid of a temptation is to yield to it.

The only way to get rid of a temptation is to yield to it.

Behind every exquisite thing that existed, there was something tragic.

The books that the world calls immoral are books that show the world its own shame.

The books that the world calls immoral are books that show the world its own shame.

Every portrait that is painted with feeling is a portrait of the artist, not of the sitter. The sitter is merely the accident, the occasion. It is not he who is revealed by the painter; it is rather the painter who, on the colored canvas, reveals himself.

We are all in the gutter, but some of us are looking at the stars.

Oh! Gossip is charming! History is merely gossip. But scandal is gossip made tedious by morality.

We are all in the gutter, but some of us are looking at the stars.

My experience is that as soon as people are old enough to know better, they don't know anything at all.

To regret one’s own experiences is to arrest one’s own development. To deny one’s own experiences is to put a lie into the lips of one’s own life. It is no less than a denial of the soul.

The truth is rarely pure and never simple. Modern life would be very tedious if it were either, and modern literature a complete impossibility!

When one is in love, one always begins by deceiving one's self, and one always ends by deceiving others. That is what the world calls a romance.

The truth is rarely pure and never simple. Modern life would be very tedious if it were either, and modern literature a complete impossibility!

Oh, damn sympathy. There is a great deal too much of that sort of thing going on nowadays.

It is absurd to have a hard-and-fast rule about what one should read and what one shouldn't. More than half of modern culture depends on what one shouldn't read.

It is absurd to have a hard-and-fast rule about what one should read and what one shouldn't. More than half of modern culture depends on what one shouldn't read.

You don't seem to realize that in married life three is company and two is none.

You don't seem to realize that in married life three is company and two is none.

You will always be fond of me. I represent to you all the sins you never had the courage to commit.

Oh, damn sympathy. There is a great deal too much of that sort of thing going on nowadays.

Misfortunes one can endure - they come from outside, they are accidents. But to suffer for one's own faults - ah! - there is the sting of life.

I am tired of myself tonight. I should like to be somebody else.

Suffering is one very long moment. We cannot divide it by seasons. We can only record its moods, and chronicle their return. With us time itself does not progress. It revolves. It seems to circle round one centre of pain.

Oh! Gossip is charming! History is merely gossip. But scandal is gossip made tedious by morality.

This is the last time I shall ever look on you. You will never see me again. For one moment our lives met — our souls touched. They must never meet or touch again.

All women become like their mothers. That is their tragedy. No man does. That's his.