Only a creature that can think symbolically about life can conceive of its own death. Our knowledge of death is part of our knowledge of life.

The seeds of civilization are in every culture, but it is city life that brings them to fruition.

Most new discoveries are suddenly-seen things that were always there. A new idea is a light that illuminates presences which simply had no form before the light fell on them.

The first impression of a work of art is its otherness from reality.

The Past, being in the mode of memory, is closed, inalienable, and irreparable.

Fire is a natural symbol of life and passion, though it is the one element in which nothing can actually live.

The secret of 'fusion' is the fact that the artist's eye sees in nature... an inexhaustible wealth of tension, rhythms, continuities, and contrasts which can be rendered in line and color.

Music is the tonal analogue of emotive life.

The high intellectual value of images, however, lies in the fact that they usually, and perhaps always, fit more than one actual experience.

If a work of art is a projection of feeling, its kinship with organic nature will emerge, no matter through how many transformations, logically and inevitably.

The fairytale is irresponsible; it is frankly imaginary, and its purpose is to gratify wishes, as a dream doth flatter.

Live Today! Do not allow your spirit to be softened of your happiness to be limited by a day you cannot have back or a day that does not yet exist.

In forming an estimate of sins, we are often imposed upon by imagining that the more hidden the less heinous they are.

Music is spiritual. The music business is not.

The time of persecution and problems is the time to thank and praise God

I think that human beings are capable of the worst things possible and they show that there were times, and there probably are times, that it is human to be inhuman.

I take pride in everything I do. I don't want to be handed anything. I want to earn it.

I'm interested in learning more about myself and what I value in myself and letting that be the beautiful part of me, rather than putting on the makeup or wearing the right designer.

Love will turn you on your head.

Yes, Roza. I did want you. I still do. I wish... we could be together. -Dimitri to Rose on their relationship

The expense of a war could be paid in time; but the expense of opium, when once the habit is formed, will only increase with time.