A man only becomes wise when he begins to calculate the approximate depth of his ignorance.

Art is the unceasing effort to compete with the beauty of flowers - and never succeeding.

Music is...a form of remembering, a return to the seasons of the heart long gone.

Hell begins on the day when God grants us a clear vision of all that we might have achieved, of all the gifts which we have wasted, of all that we might have done which we did not do.

Melody is a form of remembrance. It must have a quality of inevitability in our ears.

Waiting and hoping are the whole of life, and as soon as a dream is realized it is destroyed.

I know of no better definition of love than the one given by Proust - Love is space and time measured by the heart.

Any subject is good for opera if the composer feels it so intently he must sing it out.

Love is born of faith, lives on hope, and dies of charity.

One lived in the impression that nobody could ever compete with the 'Nutcracker' or 'A Christmas Carol.'

I've always spent more time with a smile on my face than not, but the thing is, I don't write about it.

Russians always need a little sh*t in our lives. If everything is good and we seem completely happy, then we become suspicious of that.

I listen to oldies but goodies stations, '60s and '70s music.

Clearly, a stable, unified and democratic Iraq cannot be achieved militarily by the U.S.

I think that I will continue being an active and restless soul. And I think that what I do which is to help people nurture their potential not only for themselves, but also for the world.

When we look at the sky, we see two things: The beauty of the space and the future of the humanity!

My major problem with the world is a problem of scarcity in the midst of plenty ... of people starving while there are unused resources ... people having skills which are not being used.

In every story I have heard, good teachers share one trait: a strong sense of personal identity infuses their work.

We tend to use a new technology to do an old task more efficiently. We pave the cow paths.

If I go home, get a gun, come back and shoot you, that may not be legal under New York law because you would have alternative ways to defend.