Perhaps she would learn in time to permit both her daughter and her gods to govern their own affairs.

Throughout the hours of the night, though there had been few to hear it, the whole sky had been loud with the singing of these constellations.

[Camila] was quite incapable of establishing any harmony between the claims of her art, of her appetites, or her dreams, and of her crowded daily routine. Each of these was a world in itself.

But such occasions of excellence became less and less frequent. As her technique became sounder, [her] sincerity became less necessary.

The knowledge that she would never be loved in return acted upon her ideas as a tide acts upon cliffs.

Either we live by accident and die by accident, or we live by plan and die by plan.

She did not suspect that the Abbess was even there hovering about the house, herself estimating the stresses and watching for the moment when a burden harms and not strengthens.

But while they continued staring into one another’s face waiting for the miracle of science the pain grew worse.

The art of biography is more difficult than is generally supposed.

You can't make a silk purse out of a sow's ear.

Talent does what it can genius does what it must.

I trust my instincts. I don't distrust them. They haven't led me astray. It's when I've made up my mind to be efficient that is when I have gone wrong.

I'm just this kid from Toronto who got his start.

I care what people who know me think of me.

I'm a lover of lists and five-year plans and Excel spreadsheets. Any way that I can have any control over the direction my life is going, I gravitate towards that.

At first you think that your sadhana Is a limited part of your life. In time you realize that Everything you do is part of your sadhana.

Truly effective and inspiring leaders aren’t actually driven to lead people; they are driven to serve them.

I'm not going to spend two years of my life on something that I'm not excited about.

In France, a first lady has no status, and therefore she isn't supposed to do anything else.