"The notion of making money by popular work, and then retiring to do good work on the proceeds, is the most familiar of all the devil's traps for artists."

"The truth is that the phenomena of artistic production are still so obscure, so baffling, we are still so far from an accurate scientific and psychological knowledge of their genesis or meaning, that we are forced to accept them as empirical facts; and empirical and non-explanatory names are the names that suit them best. The complete explanation of any fact is the very last step in human thought; and it is reached, as I have said, if indeed it is ever reached, by the preliminary processes of recognition, designation, and definition. It is with these preliminary processes that our aesthetic criticism is still occupied."

"The emergence of a new term to describe a certain phenomenon, of a new adjective to designate a certain quality, is always of interest, both linguistically and from the point of view of the history of human thought. That history would be a much simpler matter (and language, too, a much more precise instrument) if new thoughts on their appearance, and new facts at their discovery, could at once be analysed and explained and named with scientific precision. But even in science this seldom happens; we find rather that a whole complex group of facts, like those for instance of gas or electricity, are at first somewhat vaguely noticed, and are given, more or less by chance, a name like that of gas, which is an arbitrary formation, or that of electricity, which is derived from the attractive power of electrum or amber when rubbed — the first electric phenomenon to be noticed."

"The denunciation of the young is a necessary part of the hygiene of older people, and greatly assists in the circulation of their blood."

"Don't laugh at a youth for his affectations; he is only trying on one face after another to find his own."

"There are readers—and I am one of them—whose reading is rather like a series of intoxications. We fall in love with a book; it is our book, we feel, for life; we shall not need another. We cram-throat our friends with it in the cruellest fashion; make it a Gospel, which we preach in a spirit of propaganda and indignation, putting a woe on the world for a neglect of which last week we were equally guilty."

"I cannot forgive my friends for dying; I do not find these vanishing acts of theirs at all amusing."

"We all endeavour, as Spinoza says, to persist in our own being; and that endeavour is, he adds, the very essence of our existence. When, therefore, we find that what delighted us once can still delight us: that though the objects of our admiration may be intermittent, yet they move in fixed orbits, and their return is certain, these reappearances will suggest that we have after all maintained something of our own integrity; that a sort of system lies beneath the apparent variability of our interests; that there is, so to speak, a continuity within ourselves, a core of meaning which has not disintegrated with the years."

"Wisdom cannot prevent a fall, but may cushion it."

"Why do we never expect dull people to be rascals?"

"Don’t milk the cow too hard. She will kick you."

"When lying to someone, look him straight in the eye."

"Reality is the name we give to our disappointments."

"To be successful be ahead of your time, but only a little."

"The laughter of the aphorism is sometimes triumphant, but seldom carefree."

"Timidity keeps me safe and sad in a narrow room."

"Writing an upbeat aphorism is a temptation, but decorum forbids."

"People may show jealousy, but hide their envy."

"Ideology has shaped the very sofa on which I sit."

"Lonely people keep up a ceaseless flow of commentary on themselves."

"Wisdom remembers. Happiness forgets."

"Every day begins with an act of courage and hope: getting out of bed."

"In an aphorism, aptness counts for more than truth."

"Scepticism is always a back road leading to some credo or other."

"I am easy-going right up to the borders of my self-interest."

"As Rochefoucauld his maxims drew From Nature, I believe 'em true: They argue no corrupted mind In him; the fault is in mankind."

"This is no time to be getting all steamed up about La Rochefoucauld. It's only a question of minutes before I'm going to be pretty darned good and sick of La Rochefoucauld, once and for all. La Rochefoucauld this and La Rochefoucauld that. Yes, well, let me tell you that if nobody had ever learned to quote, very few people would be in love with La Rochefoucauld. I bet you I don't know ten souls who read him without a middleman."

"Ce qui fait que si peu de personnes sont agréables dans la conversation, c'est que chacun songe plus à ce qu'il veut dire qu'à ce que les autres disent."

"Les petits esprits sont blessés des plus petites choses"

"Il faut écouter ceux qui parlent, si on veut en être écouté."

"Ce qui nous fait croire si facilement que les autres ont des défauts, c'est la facilité que l'on a de croire ce qu'on souhaite."

"Il est quelquefois agréable à un mari d'avoir une femme jalouse; il entend toujours parler de ce qu'il aime."

"Il est plus difficile de dissimuler les sentiments que l'on a que de feindre ceux que l'on n'a pas."

"La pompe des enterrements regarde plus la vanité des vivants que l'honneur des morts."

"C’est une espèce de bonheur, de connaître jusqu’à quel point on doit être malheureux."

"Ceux qui ont eu de grandes passions se trouvent toute leur vie heureux, et malheureux, d'en être guéris."

"Les querelles ne dureraient pas longtemps, si le tort n'était que d'un côté."

"Dans les premières passions les femmes aiment l'amant, et dans les autres elles aiment l'amour."

"Il y a peu de femmes dont le mérite dure plus que la beauté."

"Il ne sert à rien d'être jeune sans être belle, ni d'être belle sans être jeune."

"Il n'y a que les personnes qui ont de la fermeté qui puissent avoir une véritable douceur."

"Comment prétendons-nous qu'un autre puisse garder notre secret, si nous ne pouvons le garder nous-mêmes?"

"Il est plus aisé de connaître l'homme en général que de connaître un homme en particulier."

"Dans l'amitié comme dans l'amour on est souvent plus heureux par les choses qu'on ignore que par celles que l'on sait."

"Nous essayons de nous faire honneur des défauts que nous ne voulons pas corriger."

"Rien n'empêche tant d'être naturel que l'envie de le paraître."

"La vivacité qui augmente en vieillissant ne va pas loin de la folie."

"En amour, celui qui est guéri le premier est toujours le mieux guéri."