The death of a beautiful woman, is unquestionably the most poetical topic in the world.

I don’t know that much about who directs what movies, but I’m definitely inspired by the look of old movies; I find them to be really beautiful.

Beautiful sentences pop into my head. Beautiful sentences that aren’t always absolutely accurate. Then, I have to choose between the beautiful sentence and being absolutely accurate. It can be a difficult choice.

In judging of a beautiful statue, the aesthetic faculty is absolutely and completely gratified by the splendid curves of those marble lips that are dumb to our complaint, the noble modelling of those limbs that are powerless to help us.

I have thought there was some advantage even in death, by which we mingle with the herd of common men.

To me a lush carpet of pine needles or spongy grass is more welcome than the most luxurious Persian rug.

I read the Bible to myself; I’ll take any translation, any edition, and read it aloud, just to hear the language, hear the rhythm, and remind myself how beautiful English is.

The undiscovered country from whose bourn no traveler returns.

If you want to make beautiful music, you must play the black and the white notes together.

The mere brute pleasure of reading the sort of pleasure a cow must have in grazing.

The key thing about a book is that you lose yourself in the author’s world.

He would make a lovely corpse.

I believe in manicures. I believe in overdressing. I believe in primping at leisure and wearing lipstick. I believe in pink. I believe happy girls are the prettiest girls. I believe that tomorrow is another day, and… I believe in miracles.

The soul that sees beauty may sometimes walk alone.

All that mankind has done, thought or been: it is lying as in magic preservation in the pages of books.

The poets have been mysteriously silent on the subject of cheese.

Even today we raise our hand against our brother… We have perfected our weapons, our conscience has fallen asleep, and we have sharpened our ideas to justify ourselves as if it were normal we continue to sow destruction, pain, death. Violence and war lead only to death.

One merit of poetry few persons will deny: it says more and in fewer words than prose.

Whatever came to mind, whatever came to hand, I would read.

Every man’s memory is his private literature.

Truth is beautiful, without doubt; but so are lies.

Jesus Christ belonged to the true race of prophets. He saw with open eye the mystery of the soul. Drawn by its severe harmony, ravished with its beauty, he lived in it and had his being there. Alone in all history, he estimated the greatness of man.

Nothing can be beautiful which is not true.

Every man lives in two realms: the internal and the external. The internal is that realm of spiritual ends expressed in art, literature, morals, and religion. The external is that complex of devices, techniques, mechanisms, and instrumentalities by means of which we live.

Why should poetry have to make sense?

As we grow old, the beauty steals inward.

More people should read books. It’s the most concentrated experience you can have.

I don’t think of poetry as a ‚rational‘ activity but as an aural one. My poems usually begin with words or phrases which appeal more because of their sound than their meaning, and the movement and phrasing of a poem are very important to me.

Either he’s dead or my watch has stopped.

When power leads man toward arrogance, poetry reminds him of his limitations. When power narrows the area of man’s concern, poetry reminds him of the richness and diversity of existence. When power corrupts, poetry cleanses.

Over the centuries, mankind has tried many ways of combating the forces of evil… prayer, fasting, good works and so on. Up until Doom, no one seemed to have thought about the double-barrel shotgun. Eat leaden death, demon.

There is nothing which can better deserve your patronage, than the promotion of science and literature. Knowledge is in every country the surest basis of public happiness.

Poetry comes from the highest happiness or the deepest sorrow.

I will buy any creme, cosmetic, or elixir from a woman with a European accent.

In this world nothing can be said to be certain, except death and taxes.

Fashion is here to help make people look very important. If they have good taste and choose what suits them, I give them options on how they can do that. It’s always sexy, and it’s always with the same result: making women look fantastic.

When good Americans die they go to Paris.

Someone has to die in order that the rest of us should value life more.

Love of beauty is taste. The creation of beauty is art.

It is vain for the coward to flee; death follows close behind; it is only by defying it that the brave escape.

It is not only the living who are killed in war.

What pity is it That we can die, but once to serve our country.

God writes the Gospel not in the Bible alone, but also on trees, and in the flowers and clouds and stars.

Science is not everything, but science is very beautiful.

The terrifying and edible beauty of Art Nouveau architecture.

As long as a woman can look ten years younger than her own daughter, she is perfectly satisfied.

I’ve only written one science-fiction book: ‚Fahrenheit 451.‘ That book is a book based on real facts and my hatred of people who destroy books.

Perhaps one of the most difficult things for us to do is to choose a notable and joyous dress for men. There would be more joy in life if we were to accustom ourselves to use all the beautiful colours we can in fashioning our own clothes.

Alas! how little does the memory of these human inhabitants enhance the beauty of the landscape!

Until I feared I would lose it, I never loved to read. One does not love breathing.

I don’t like perfumes that are too strong or sweet. I like a fragrance that is earthy and sensual and can be worn at any time.

Religion is part of the human make-up. It’s also part of our cultural and intellectual history. Religion was our first attempt at literature, the texts, our first attempt at cosmology, making sense of where we are in the universe, our first attempt at health care, believing in faith healing, our first attempt at philosophy.

All my stories are like the Greek and Roman myths, and the Egyptian myths, and the Old and New Testament.

Football (soccer) is a matter of life and death, except more important.

The good ended happily, and the bad unhappily. That is what fiction means.

Beauty is a short-lived tyranny.

It is the nature of the artist to mind excessively what is said about him. Literature is strewn with the wreckage of men who have minded beyond reason the opinions of others.

Death is not natural for a state as it is for a human being, for whom death is not only necessary, but frequently even desirable.

Books are divided into two classes, the books of the hour and the books of all time.

Love, we say, is life; but love without hope and faith is agonizing death.

The finest works of art are precious, among other reasons, because they make it possible for us to know, if only imperfectly and for a little while, what it actually feels like to think subtly and feel nobly.