“A really well-made buttonhole is the only link between Art and Nature.”

“The only thing that one really knows about human nature is that it changes. Change is the one quality we can predicate of it.”

“It's the spectator, and not life, that art really mirrors.”

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

“It is through art, and through art only, that we can realise our perfection.”

“Art only begins where Imitation ends.”

“Art is the only serious thing in the world. And the artist is the only person who is never serious.”