Edmond De Goncourt

Debauchery is perhaps an act of despair in the face of infinity.

The reason for the sadness of this modern age and the men who live in it is that it looks for the truth in everything and finds it.

The English are crooked as a nation and honest as individuals. The contrary is true of the French, who are honest as a nation and crooked as individuals.

Man is a mind betrayed, not served, by his organs.

The newspaper is the natural enemy of the book, as the whore is of the decent woman.

That which, perhaps, hears more nonsense than anything in the world, is a picture in a museum.

As a general truth, it is safe to say that any picture that produces a moral impression is a bad picture.