When a man has once loved a woman he will do anything for her except continue to love her.
The only way to get rid of a temptation is to yield to it. Resist it, and your soul grows sick with longing for the things it has forbidden to itself.
If you are not too long, I will wait here for you all my life.
I can sympathize with everything, except suffering.
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.
A thing is not necessarily true because a man dies for it. The pure and simple truth is rarely pure and never simple.
My great mistake, the fault for which I can't forgive myself, is that one day I ceased my obstinate pursuit of my own individuality.
Some cause happiness wherever they go; others, whenever they go.
When the gods wish to punish us, they answer our prayers.
Children begin by loving their parents; as they grow older they judge them; sometimes they forgive them.
What a pity that in life we only get our lessons when they are of no use to us. - Lady Windermere's Fan, Lady Windermere, Act IV
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.
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.
One should either be a work of art, or wear a work of art.
The past is of no importance. The present is of no importance. It is with the future that we have to deal. For the past is what man should not have been. The present is what man ought not to be. The future is what artists are.
Experience is the name we give to our mistakes.
I have the simplest tastes. I am always satisfied with the best.
It is absurd to divide people into good and bad. People are either charming or tedious. - Lady Windermere's Fan, 1892, Act I
A pessimist is one who, when he has the choice of two evils, chooses both.
When we are happy we are always good, but when we are good we are not always happy.
I've heard there was a secret chord That David played and it pleased the Lord But you don't really care for music, do you? It goes like this The fourth, the fifth The minor fall, the major lift The baffled king composing Hallelujah
Hallelujah
Your faith was strong, but you needed proof You saw her bathing on the roof Her beauty and the moonlight overthrew you She tied you To a kitchen chair She broke your throne, she cut your hair And from your lips she drew the Hallelujah
Hallelujah
Baby I've been here before, I know this room I've walked this floor I used to live alone before I knew you I've seen your flag on the Marble Arch Love is not a victory march It's a cold and it's a broken Hallelujah
Hallelujah
There was a time you let me know What's really going on below But now you never show it to me, do you? I remember when I moved in you And the holy dove was moving too And every breath we drew was Hallelujah
Hallelujah
Maybe there's a God above, all I ever learned from love Was how to shoot at someone who out drew you And it's not a cry you can hear at night It's not somebody who's seen the light It's a cold and it's a broken Hallelujah