The crown of literature is poetry. It is the end and aim. It is the sublimest activity od the human mind. It is the achievement of beauty.
The artist gets a peculiar sensation from something he sees, and is impelled to express it and, he doesn’t know why, he can only express his feeling by lines and colours. It’s like a musician; he’ll r...
She loved three things — a joke, aglass of wine, and a handsome man.
Remember that it is nothing to do your duty, that is demanded of you and is no more meritorious than to wash your hands when they are dirty; the only thing that counts is the love of duty; when love a...
Philip discovered that the greatest tragedy of life to these people was not separation or death, that was natural and the grief of it could be assuaged with tears, but loss of work.
One of the odd things about Stendhal is that though he was always on the watch lest anyone made a fool of him, he was constantly making a fool of himself.
Oh, my dear, you musn’t be offended just because I’ve taken away from you the satisfaction of thinking that you have been deceiving me all these months.
Oh, my dear, it's rather hard to take quite literally the things a man says when he's in love with you.Didn't you mean them?At the moment.
Never pause unless you have a reason for it, but when you pause, pause as long as you can.
Mrs. Strickland was plainly nervous. Well, tell us your news, she said. I saw your husband. I'm afraid he's quite made up his mind not to return. I paused a little. He wants to paint.
Life was not so horrible if it was meaningless, and he faced it with a strange sense of power.
Life was not so horrible if it was meaningless, and he faced it with a strange sense of power. CIX
Larry sat with his arm stretched out along the top of the front seat. His shirt cuff was pulled back by his position and displayed his slim, strong wrist and the lower part of his brown arm lightly co...
Just as the embryo recapitulates in brief the evolution of the species, so did Suzanne recapitulate all the styles of her lovers.
It's dreadful, isn't it?What? Death?Yes. It makes everything else seem so horribly trivial. He doesn't look human. When you look at him you can hardly persuade yourself that he's ever been alive. It's...
It was one of the queer things of life that you saw a person every day for months and were so intimate with him that you could not imagine existence without him; then separation came, and everything w...
It looked as though you did not act in a certain way because you thought in a certain way, but rather that you thought in a certain way because you were made in a certain way. Truth had nothing to do...
It is quite as difficult to fit one's practice to one's precepts as to fit one's precepts to one's practice. Most people act in one way and preach in another. When the fact is brought to their notice,...
It is one of the defects of my character that I cannot altogether dislike anyone who makes me laugh.
I'm looking for something and I don't quite know what it is. But I know that it's very important for me to know it, and if I did it would make all the difference. Perhaps the nuns know it; when I'm wi...