Creativity makes a leap, then looks to see where it is.

Unlike the actual, the fictional explains itself.

An academic dialect is perfected when its terms are hard to understand and refer only to one another.

Kindness eases everything almost as much as money does.

If modesty disappeared, so would exhibitionism.

After my spectacular failures, I could not be satisfied with an ordinary success.

When I prayed for success, I forgot to ask for sound sleep and good digestion.

A blunt statement can be as false as any other.

I did not know I was in my prime until afterwards.

To confer dignity, forgive. To express contempt, forget.

Sloth, not ill-will, makes me unjust.

The real secrets are not the ones I tell.

Writers mean more than they say and say more than they mean.

Young poets bewail the passing of love; old poets, the passing of time. There is surprisingly little difference.

In every death, a busy world comes to an end.

Why do we never expect dull people to be rascals?

Mind and body obstruct one another's pleasures.

In the street, the gaze of desire is furtive or menacing.

I love you is the inscription on Pandora's box.

Few artists can afford artistic temperament.

Old and young disbelieve one another's truths.

If beggars do not hate the rest of us, they are even more abject than I had imagined.

Reputation runs behind the current state of affairs.

As equality increases, so does the number of people struggling for predominance.

Conscious thought is the tidying up at the end.

Romantics consider common sense vulgar.

The body has a mind of its own.

Stated clearly enough, an idea may cancel itself out.

Amazing that the human race has taken enough time out from thinking about food or sex to create the arts and sciences.

Hypocrisy is the outside of cynicism.

Taste refers to the past, imagination to the future.

Never ask a bore a question.

Opportunity knocks, but doesn't always answer to its name.

Staid middle age loves the hurricane passions of opera.

Language is the friendliest of the things from which we cannot escape.

If you are going to break a Law of Art, make the crime interesting.

If success is a habit, it is a hard one to acquire.

If we think about the obvious long enough, it dissolves.

The horse stares at its captor, barely remembering the free kicks of youth.

The man in the street is always a stranger.

When a man bores a woman, she complains. When a woman bores a man, he ignores her.

Fastidious taste makes enjoyment a struggle.

Rescue someone unwilling to look after himself, and he will cling to you like a dangerous illness.

Reality is the name we give to our disappointments.

The educated do not share a common body of information, but a common state of mind.

Don't stare into a mirror when you are trying to solve a problem.

Hatred observes with more care than love does.

Think carefully before asking for justice. Mercy might be safer.

Self-reform is the only kind that works.

People believe that photographs are true and therefore cannot be art.