Quotes to inspire and reflect

I CHOOSE MY FRIENDS FOR THEIR GOOD LOOKS, MY ACQUAINTANCES FOR THEIR GOOD CHARACTERS, AND MY ENEMIES FOR THEIR GOOD INTELLECTS.

It is one of the blessings of old friends that you can afford to be stupid with them.

’TIS THE PRIVILEGE OF FRIENDSHIP TO TALK NONSENSE, AND TO HAVE HER NONSENSE RESPECTED.

A friend is someone who knows all about you and still loves you.

Friendship is a sheltering tree.

There is nothing I would not do for those who are really my friends.

WE MAKE OUR FRIENDS, WE MAKE OUR ENEMIES; BUT GOD MAKES OUR NEXT-DOOR NEIGHBOUR.

Thy friendship oft has made my heart to ache: Do be my enemy – for friendship’s sake.

Incessant company is as bad as solitary confinement.

HE’S MY FRIEND THAT SPEAKS WELL OF ME BEHIND MY BACK.

Youth is wholly experimental.

EACH FRIEND REPRESENTS A WORLD IN US, A WORLD POSSIBLY NOT BORN UNTIL THEY ARRIVE.

Everybody’s youth is a dream, a form of chemical madness.

NO MAN KNOWS HE IS YOUNG WHILE HE IS YOUNG.

YOUTH SMILES WITHOUT ANY REASON. IT IS ONE OF ITS CHIEFEST CHARMS.

If you’re young and talented, it’s like you have wings.

AGE MAY HAVE ONE SIDE, BUT ASSUREDLY YOUTH HAS THE OTHER. THERE IS NOTHING MORE CERTAIN THAN THAT BOTH ARE RIGHT, EXCEPT PERHAPS THAT BOTH ARE WRONG.

The surest way to corrupt a youth is to instruct him to hold in higher esteem those who think alike than those who think differently.

WHAT IS YOUTH EXCEPT A MAN OR A WOMAN BEFORE IT IS READY OR FIT TO BE SEEN?

What Youth deemed crystal, Age finds out was dew.

Be on the alert to recognise your prime at whatever time of your life it may occur.

I THOUGHT I HATED EVERYBODY, BUT WHEN I GREW UP I REALISED IT WAS JUST CHILDREN I DIDN’T LIKE.

Treat a work of art like a prince. Let it speak to you first.

SELF-CONSCIOUSNESS IS THE ENEMY OF ALL ART, BE IT ACTING, WRITING, PAINTING, OR LIVING ITSELF, WHICH IS THE GREATEST ART OF ALL.

The air of ideas is the only air worth breathing.

THERE IS ONLY ONE POSITION FOR AN ARTIST ANYWHERE: AND THAT IS, UPRIGHT.

Good painters imitate nature, bad ones spew it up.

THE HISTORY OF ART IS THE HISTORY OF REVIVALS.

I DOUBT THAT ART NEEDED RUSKIN ANY MORE THAN A MOVING TRAIN NEEDS ONE OF ITS PASSENGERS TO SHOVE IT.

Nothing is capable of being well set to music that is not nonsense.

THERE ARE TWO MEN INSIDE THE ARTIST, THE POET AND THE CRAFTSMAN. ONE IS BORN A POET. ONE BECOMES A CRAFTSMAN.

Art, like morality, consists of drawing the line somewhere.

There are only two styles of portrait painting; the serious and the smirk.

ALL ART IS QUITE USELESS.

IF I CAN STOP ONE HEART FROM BREAKING, I SHALL NOT LIVE IN VAIN.

Unbeing dead isn’t being alive.

May you live all the days of your life.

LIFE’S A BITCH. YOU’VE GOT TO GO OUT AND KICK ASS.

I LOVE SHERLOCK HOLMES. MY LIFE IS SO UNTIDY AND HE’S SO NEAT.

I want to live and feel all the shades, tones and variations of mental and physical experience possible.

THOUGH A GOOD DEAL IS TOO STRANGE TO BE BELIEVED, NOTHING IS TOO STRANGE TO HAVE HAPPENED.

Life is one long process of getting tired.

You fall out of your mother’s womb, you crawl across open country under fire, and drop into your grave.

YOU ASK ME WHAT LIFE IS. THAT’S LIKE ASKING WHAT A CARROT IS. A CARROT IS A CARROT, AND THERE’S NOTHING MORE TO KNOW.

IT IS DANGEROUS TO BE SINCERE UNLESS YOU ARE ALSO STUPID.

Men must live and create. Live to the point of tears.

EASY READING IS DAMN HARD WRITING.

How vain it is to sit down to write when you have not stood up to live!