Sadness is almost never anything but a form of fatigue.

Never was anything great achieved without danger.

I have never derived the least joy out of amusements. Perhaps that is a sign of the impotence of pleasure. I ran riot and threw myself into wild diversions out of the simple desire to escape from my own shadow.

The one delusion you never had in your life was the one about the permanence of happiness.

I never did a day's work in my life, it was all fun.

Living never wore one so much as the effort not to live.

Perhaps there is no happiness in life so perfect as the martyr's.

A dead enemy is a joy forever

I have never been one of those who cares about happiness. Happiness is a strange notion. I am just not made for it. It has never been a goal of mine; I do not think in those terms.

And being contented has none of the glamour of a good fight against misfortune, none of the picturesqueness of a struggle with temptation, or a fatal overthrow by passion or doubt. Happiness is never grand.

Happiness is not essential to the artist; happiness never creates anything but memories.

Never throughout history has a man who lived a life of ease left a name worth remembering.

I don’t regret for a single moment having lived for pleasure.
I did it to the full, as one should do everything that one does. There was no pleasure I did not experience.

Don't look for mysteries. I give you pure joy.