"The study of beauty is a duel in which the artist cries with terror before being defeated."

"France is not poetic she even feels, in fact, a congenital horror of poetry. Among the writers who use verse, those whom she will always prefer are the most prosaic."

"For the merchant, even honesty is a financial speculation."

"A frenzied passion for art is a canker that devours everything else."

"Optimism - the doctrine or belief that everything is beautiful, including what is ugly."

"The echoes of eternity remind us that authenticity is the rarest and most beautiful asset."

"Beauty is now defined by your bones sticking out of your decolletage. For that to be the standard is really perilous for women."

"The essence of creativity is the belief that the beauty of life is found in its imperfections."