Punishment is a vital need of the human soul.

Attention is the rarest and purest form of generosity.

We must not wish for the disappearance of our troubles but for the grace to transform them.

Pain and suffering are a kind of currency passed from hand to hand until they reach someone who receives them but does not pass them on.

There are only two things that pierce the human heart. One is beauty. The other is affliction.

If you want to know what a man is really like, take notice of how he acts when he loses money.

A hurtful act is the transference to others of the degradation which we bear in ourselves.

There is one, and only one, thing in modern society more hideous than crime namely, repressive justice.

The joy of learning is as indispensable in study as breathing is in running.

Equality is the public recognition, effectively expressed in institutions and manners, of the principle that an equal degree of attention is due to the needs of all human beings.

More than in any other performing arts the lack of respect for acting seems to spring from the fact that every layman considers himself a valid critic.

The fuse is lit. You can run all you want to but you leave a trail of gunpowder in your wake. There’s going to be a reckoning eventually.

You gave too much rein to your imagination. Imagination is a good servant, and a bad master. The simplest explanation is always the most likely.

Love is difficult, because loving is not enough: We must, like God, ourselves be Love.

Almost always great new ideas don't emerge from within a single person or function, but at the intersection of functions or people that have never met before.

Capitalism is first and foremost a historical social system.

One life stamps and influences another, which in turn stamps and influences another, on and on, until the soul of human experience breathes on in generations we'll never meet.

Everyone is always having their attention divided between the world of the people [they're] with and this other reality.

Directing is a constant test of your communicative powers. You're constantly trying to explain people your vision of what you want and steer these tiny little details into a cohesive thing.

Why live an ordinary life, when you can live an extraordinary one.

If God wanted me to be quiet he would’ve never showed me what he does.