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
The longer I live the more I see that I am never wrong about anything, and that all the pains I have so humbly taken to verify my notions have only wasted my time.
The things most people want to know about are usually none of their business.
There are two tragedies in life. One is not to get your heart's desire. The other is to get it.
He who can, does. He who can not, teaches.
A government that robs Peter to pay Paul can always depend upon the support of Paul.
We are made wise not by the recollection of our past, but by the responsibility for our future.
When a stupid man is doing something he is ashamed of, he always declares that it is his duty.
A life spent makeing mistakes is not only more honorable but more useful than a life spent doing nothing.
You see things as they are and ask, "Why?" I dream things as they never were and ask, "Why not?"
Self-sacrifice enables us to sacrifice other people without blushing.
Life does not cease to be funny when people die any more than it ceases to be serious when people laugh.
Everything happens to everybody sooner or later if there is time enough.
Men are wise in proportion, not to their experience, but to their capacity for experience.
The secret of forgiving everything is to understand nothing.
The power of accurate observation is commonly called cynicism by those who have not got it.
Beauty is all very well at first sight; but who ever looks at it when it has been in the house three days?
People are always blaming circumstances for what they are. I don't believe in circumstances. The people who get on in this world are the people who get up and look for the circumstances they want, and, if they can't find them, make them.
Find enough clever things to say, and you're a Prime Minister; write them down and you're a Shakespeare.
If history repeats itself, and the unexpected always happens, how incapable must Man be of learning from experience!
This is the true joy in life: Being used for a purpose recognized by yourself as a mighty one, being a force of nature instead of a feverish, selfish little clod of ailments and grievances, complaining that the world will not devote itself to making you happy. I am of the opinion that my life belongs to the whole community and as long as I live, it is my privilege to do for it what I can. It is a sort of splendid torch which I have got hold of for the moment and I want to make it burn as brightly as possible before handing it on to future generations.