God is to theology what infinity is to mathematics.
Seeming
Religion, art, taste, and other delusions.
Lower pleasures are never quite as sharp the second time: they depend on surprise.
You can’t convince people that ugliness is beautiful. You can, however, convince them that it is bold, inspiring, visionary, unique, searching, thought-provoking, evocative, and unconventional.
All the pleasures shall be guilty, except the nasty ones.
Satire becomes easier and easier until it is impossible.
Now and then a readable novel is written that takes its author as its subject; we call these autobiographies.
Love-conquers-all is the dullest story in the world. In most of the interesting stories love conquers nothing whatever.
Nice manners are a minor virtue rarely found in people with major ones.
The praise of reviewers tends to be bland and uninformative, with exceptions. One can be certain that an actor’s “riveting” performance was far worse than usual, and that a “lyrical” novel will be unreadable.
You don’t need to love what I love, just hate what I hate.