44 quotes
What a man has done bores everybody, but what he is going to do is always delightful.
The Wisdom of the Wise (1900)
Men heap together the mistakes of their lives and create a monster which they call Destiny.
The Sinner's Comedy (1892)
People get to like a soul, but a satisfactory hat makes an impression at first sight.
Love and the Soul Hunters (1902)
Disappointments—like fate and love—will not bear to be too much talked about.
The Ambassador (1898)
To love is to know the sacrifices which eternity exacts from life.
A quart of doubt to an ounce of truth is the safest brew.
The Herb-Moon (1896)
Not all are blind that feel the scourge of love.
Osbern and Ursyne (1900)
All forced virtue is degrading in its effect.
The Herb-Moon (1896)
If women thought less of their own souls and more about men's tempers, marriage wouldn't he what it is.
The Wisdom of the Wise (1900)
Men astonish themselves far more than they astonish their friends.
Some Emotions and a Moral (1891)
If the gods have no sense of humour they must weep a great deal.
The Sinner's Comedy (1892)
Ah, it is silliness to pass a wolf because one is hunting foxes.
Osbern and Ursyne (1900)
The wisest are those who can best adjust their disadvantages.
The Wisdom of the Wise (1900)
What is beautiful is right: what is unbeautiful is wrong.
The Herb-Moon (1896)
Ideals, my dear Golightly, are the root of every evil. When a man forgets his ideals he may hope for happiness, but not till then.
Some Emotions and a Moral (1891)
Dearest, every man—even the most cynical—has one enthusiasm—he is earnest about some one thing; the all-round trifler does not exist. If there is a skeleton—there is also an idol in the cupboard!
The Ambassador (1898)
A statesman's words, like butcher's meat, should be well weighed.
Robert Orange (1900)
Women may be whole oceans deeper than we are, but they are also a whole paradise better. She may have got us out of Eden, but as a compensation she makes the earth very pleasant.
The Ambassador (1898)
It is our imagination, not our conscience, which makes us better than the beasts of the field.
The Herb-Moon (1896)
An enemy's praise heralds all treachery,
And grows the sweeter as revenge looks surer!
Osbern and Ursyne (1900)