On truth and knowledge:

“Art creates an incomparable and unique effect, and, having done so, passes on to other things.  Nature, upon the other hand, forgetting that imitation can be made the sincerest form of insult, keeps on repeating this effect until we all become absolutely wearied of it.”

“What is abnormal in Life stands in normal relations to Art.  It is the only thing in Life that stands in normal relations to Art.”

“A great artist invents a type, and Life tries to copy it, to reproduce it in a popular form, like an enterprising publisher.”

“To reveal art and conceal the artist is art’s aim.”

“Art never expresses anything but itself.”

“Art is a veil, rather than a mirror.”

“Beauty reveals everything, because it expresses nothing.”

“God and other artists are always a little obscure.”

“All art is at once surface and symbol.  Those who go beneath the surface do so at their peril.  Those who read the symbol do so at their peril.”

“The basis of optimism is sheer terror.”

“There is nothing sane about the worship of beauty.  It is too splendid to be sane.”

“It is only the superficial qualities that last.  Man’s deeper nature is soon found out.”

“The only portraits in which one believes are portraits where there is very little of the sitter, and a very great deal of the artist.”

“Truth is entirely and absolutely a matter of style.”

“The primary aim of the critic is to see the object as in itself it really is not.”

“It is only by intensifying his own personality that the critic can interpret the personality and work of others, and the more strongly this personality enters into the interpretation the more real the interpretation becomes, the more satisfying, the more convincing, and the more true.”

“Great works of art are living things—are, in fact, the only things that live.”

“The public have an insatiable curiosity to know everything, except what is worth knowing.”

“Only the shallow know themselves.”

“It is only about things that do not interest one that one can give a really unbiased opinion, which is not doubt the reason why an unbiased opinion is always absolutely valueless.”

“All bad poetry springs from genuine feeling.  To be natural is to be obvious, and to be obvious is to be inartistic.”

“Those who see any difference between soul and body have neither.”

“If one tells the truth, one is sure, sooner or later, to be found out.”

“Nature is a kind of trick played on art.”

“Life is terribly deficient in form.”

“At twilight nature becomes a wonderfully suggestive aspect, and is not without loveliness, perhaps its chief use is to illustrate quotations from the poets.”

“The only real people are the people who never existed.”

“To give an accurate description of what has never occurred is not merely the proper occupation of the historian, but the inalienable privilege of any man of parts and culture.”

“A subject that is beautiful in itself gives no suggestion to the artist.  It lacks imperfection.”

“I sometimes think that God, in creating man, somewhat overestimated His ability.”

“Formerly we used to canonise our heroes.  The modern method is to vulgarise them.”

“In America the president reigns for four years, and Journalism governs for ever and ever.”

“Public opinion exists only where there are no ideas.”

“A truth ceases to be true when more than one person believes in it.”
 

On education, self-development, and “usefulness”:

“The only beautiful things are the things that do not concern us.  As long as a thing is useful or necessary to us, or affects us in any way, either for pain or for pleasure, or appeals strongly to our sympathies, or is a vital part of the environment in which we live, it is outside the proper sphere of art.”

“All art is quite useless.”

“All bad art comes from returning to Life and Nature, and elevating them into ideals.  Life and Nature may sometimes be used as part of Art’s rough material, but before they are of any real service to art they must be translated into artistic conventions.”

“People who hold terribly unsound views have usually been listening to the conversation of some one older than themselves.”

“Nothing that is worth knowing can be taught.”

“The most perfect art is that which most fully mirrors man in all his infinite variety.”

“We are never more true to ourselves than when we are inconsistent.”

“Through constant change, and through constant change alone, man will find his true unity.”

“The worst vice of the fanatic is sincerity.”

“Dullness is the coming of age of seriousness.”

“What people call insincerity is simply a method by which we can multiply our personalities.”

“To have a capacity for a passion and not to realise it, is to make oneself incomplete and limited.”

“To arrive at what one really believes, one must speak through lips different from one’s own.”

“The well-bred contradict other people.  The wise contradict themselves.

“The first duty in life is to be as artificial as possible.  What the second duty is no one has as yet discovered.”

“When a man says he has exhausted life one always knows life has exhausted him.”

“To love oneself is the beginning of a life-long romance.”

“Nothing is so dangerous as being too modern; one is apt to grow old fashioned quite suddenly.”

“Pleasure is the only thing one should live for.  Nothing ages like happiness.”

“It is only by not paying one’s bills that one can hope to live in the memory of the commercial classes.”

“To win back my youth there is nothing I would not do—nothing—except take exercise, get up early, or be a useful member of the community.”

“To live is the rarest thing in the world.  Most people exist—that is all.”

“Every effect that one produces gives one an enemy.  To be popular, one must be a mediocrity.”

“To be good, according to the vulgar standards of goodness, is obviously quite easy.  It merely requires a certain amount of sordid terror, a certain lack of imaginative thought, and a certain low passion for middle-class respectability.”

“Society, which is the beginning and basis of morals, exists simply for the concentration of human energy, and in order to ensure its own continuance and healthy stability it demands.”

“What is termed Sin is an essential element of progress.  Without it the world would stagnate, or grow old, or become colourless.  By its curiosity Sin increases the experience of the race.”

“All art is immoral.”

“An idea that is not dangerous is unworthy of being called an idea at all.”

“A dreamer is one who can only find his way by moonlight, and his punishment is that he sees the dawn before the rest of the world.”

“Society often forgives the criminal; it never forgives the dreamer.”

“Suicide is the greatest compliment that one can pay to society.”

“No crime is vulgar, but all vulgarity is crime.”

“Those who find ugly meanings in beautiful things are corrupt without being charming.”

“Wickedness is a myth invented by good people to account for the curious attractiveness of others.”

“There is no such thing as a moral or an immoral book.  Books are well written, or badly written.  That is all.”

“The nineteenth century dislike of Realism is the rage of Caliban seeing his own face in a glass.”

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

“It is not the sinful, but the stupid, who are our shame.”

“Morality is simply the attitude we adopt towards people we personally dislike.”

“Any preoccupation with ideas of what is right or wrong in conduct shows an arrested intellectual development.”

“Industry is the root of all ugliness.”

“There is something tragic about the enormous number of young men there are in England at the present moment who start life with perfect profiles, and end by adopting some useful profession.”

“If I do live again I would like to be as a flower—no soul but perfectly beautiful.  Perhaps for my sins I shall be made a red geranium!”

“One should never make one’s debut with a scandal.  One should reserve that to give an interest to one’s old age.”

“After playing Chopin, I feel as if I had been weeping over sins that I had never committed, and mourning over tragedies that were not my own.”

“To realise the nineteenth century, one must realise every century that has preceded it.”

“It is very much more difficult to talk about a thing than to do it.”

“Action is a blind thing dependent on external influences, and moved by an impulse of whose nature it is unconscious.  It is a thing incomplete in its essence, because limited by accident, and ignorant of its direction, being always at variance with its aim.  Its basis is the lack of imagination.”

“The one person who has more illusions than the dreamer is the man of action.”

“Ambition is the last refuge of the failure.”

“There is only one class in the community that thinks more about money than the rich, and that is the poor.  The poor can think of nothing else.  That is the misery of being poor.”
 

On Men, Women, and Society:

“Rich bachelors should be heavily taxed.  It is not fair that some men should be happier than others.”

“Women have been so highly educated that nothing should surprise them except happy marriages.”

“The gratitude of most men is but a secret desire of receiving greater benefits.”

“Women have a much better time than men in this world: there are far more things forbidden to them!”

“A bad man is the sort of man who admires innocence, and a bad woman is the sort of woman a man never gets tired of.”

“Anyone can sympathize with the sufferings of a friend, but it requires a very fine nature to sympathize with a friend’s success.”

“Humanity will always love Rousseau for having confessed his sins, not to a priest, but to the world.”

“A bad man is the sort of man who admires innocence.”

“Nothing looks so like innocence as an indiscretion.”

“Women as a sex are Sphinxes without secrets.”

“Memory in a woman is the beginning of dowdiness.”

“There is only one real tragedy in a woman’s life—the fact that her past is always her lover, and her future invariably her husband.”

“A cynic is a man who knows the price of everything, and the value of nothing.”

“The world is packed with good women.  To know them is a middle-class education.”

“Selfishness is not living as one wishes to live.  It is asking other people to live as one wishes to live.”