“The purpose of art is to console and amuse—myself, and, I hope, others.”

“It's always wonderful when something altogether wrong ends right, without the help of either religion or the police.”

“In an old house in Paris that was covered with vinesLived twelve little girls in two straight linesIn two straight lines they broke their breadAnd brushed their teeth and went to bed.They left the house at half past nineIn two straight lines in rain or shine-The smallest one was Madeline.”

“Only one who has known how troubled life can be, has a real appreciation of it when it is good”

“With horror he perceived that, by uniting himself as he had with the dead, he had cut himself off from the living. Stripped of all earthly hope, bereft of every consolation, he was rendered as poor as mortal can possiblybe on this side of the grave.”

“I think one of the things you and I have to learn is that we have to live without the consolation of belonging to a Church....Of one thing I am certain. The religion of the future will have to be extremely ascetic, and by that I don't mean just going without food and drink.”

“The work of art is the object seen sub specie aeternitatis [i.e., under the aspect of eternity]; and the good life is the world seen sub specie aeternitatis. This is the connection between art and ethics.”