I became the spendthrift of my own genius, and to waste an eternal youth gave me a curious joy
The important thing, the thing that lies before me, the thing that I have to do, if the brief remainder of my days is not to be maimed, marred, and incomplete, is to absorb into my nature all that has been done to me, to make it part of me, to accept it without complaint, fear, or reluctance.
Behind joy and laughter there may be a temperament, coarse, hard and callous. But behind sorrow there is always sorrow. Pain, unlike pleasure, wears no mask.
At every single moment of one’s life one is what one is going to be no less than what one has been. Art is a symbol, because man is a symbol.
Most people are other people. Their thoughts are some one else’s opinions, their lives a mimicry, their passions a quotation.
A man whose desire is to be something separate from himself, to be a member of Parliament, or a successful grocer, or a prominent solicitor, or a judge, or something equally tedious, invariably succeeds in being what he wants to be. That is his punishment. Those who want a mask have to wear it.