“With freedom, flowers, books, and the moon, who could not be perfectly happy?”

“How can a woman be expected to be happy with a man who insists on treating her as if she were a perfectly normal human being”

“There is an unknown land full of strange flowers and subtle perfumes, a land of which it is joy of all joys to dream, a land where all things are perfect and poisonous.”

“My Salome is a mystic the sister of Salammbô a Saint Thérèse who worships the moon.”

“But don't you think one can be happy when on is married?Perfectly happy. But the happiness of a married man, my dear Gerald, depends on the people he has not married.But if one is in love?One should always be in love. That is the reason one should never marry.”

“I have never searched for happiness. Who wants happiness? I have searched for pleasure.”

“Far away beyond the pine-woods,' he answered, in a low dreamy voice, 'there is a little garden. There the grass grows long and deep, there are the great white stars of the hemlock flower, there the nightingale sings all night long. All night long he sings, and the cold, crystal moon looks down, and the yew-tree spreads out its giant arms over the sleepers.”