I have always derived indescribable pleasure from leading a decent woman to the edge of sin and leaving her there to live between the temptation and the fear of that sin.

If there is a God, atheism must seem to Him as less of an insult than religion.

A painting in a museum hears more ridiculous opinions than anything else in the world.

I feel sure that coups d'état would go much better if there were seats, boxes, and stalls so that one could see what was happening and not miss anything.

Debauchery is perhaps an act of despair in the face of infinity.

A poet is a man who puts up a ladder to a star and climbs it while playing a violin.

People don't like the true and simple; they like fairy tales and humbug.

Historians tell the story of the past, novelists the story of the present.

As a general truth, it is safe to say that any picture that produces a moral impression is a bad picture.

Barbarism is needed every four or five hundred years to bring the world back to life. Otherwise it would die of civilization.

There are only two great currents in the history of mankind: the baseness which makes conservatives and the envy which makes revolutionaries.

Let us not be satisfied with just giving money. Money is not enough, money can be got, but they need your hearts to love them. So, spread your love everywhere you go.

There are no great limits to growth because there are no limits of human intelligence, imagination, and wonder.

I'm human, just like anybody else.

Some of us want the crown before the cross.

Is happiness really the only thing we should be aiming for?

International relationships are preordained to be clumsy gestures based on imperfect knowledge.

Faith is an evil precisely because it requires no justification and brooks no argument.

What made me want to be on it was reading a really good script, and being compelled by and attracted to the characters. I really loved Maura Isles, who was very fascinating to me.

It's human nature to quit when it hurts. But it's that reflex that creates scarcity.

We're wrong if we think we're the only ones struggling with Resistance. Everyone who has a body experiences Resistance.