Humanity takes itself too seriously. It is the world's original sin. If the cave-man had known how to laugh, History would have been different.

I don't want to be at the mercy of my emotions. I want to use them, to enjoy them, and to dominate them.

Behind every exquisite thing that existed, there was something tragic.

The books that the world calls immoral are books that show the world its own shame.

Oh, brothers! I don't care for brothers. My elder brother won't die, and my younger brothers seem never to do anything else.

If a man treats life artistically, his brain is his heart.

What fire does not destroy, it hardens

All art is at once surface and symbol. Those who go beneath the surface do so at their peril.

Whenever a man does a thoroughly stupid thing, it is always from the noblest motives.

Every portrait that is painted with feeling is a portrait of the artist, not of the sitter.

The basis of optimism is sheer terror.

A lie can travel half way around the world while the truth is putting on its shoes.

17. We live on this earth till we die one dayThough we crave to live, death doth make its swayNone can stop it, thou nor I from its wayNor tears of kith and kin keeps it away

I like it when my mother smiles. And I especially like it when I make her smile.

The number of opera houses around the world and the high attendance rates show that opera an art form that is more popular than ever.

Sometimes, in difficult circumstances, one can confuse compassion with love.

He suddenly felt nothing, or rather Nothing, a pre-tornadic stillness of zero sensation, as if he were the very space he occupied.

From today, painting is dead.

Rome alone can resist Rome.

What we all desire is the fullest, highest expression of ourselves.

Because I don't see Virgin as a company but as a way of life and I fully enjoy it, I don't think I'll ever retire.