Selfishness in art, as in other things, is sensibility kept at home.

The only competition worthy of a wise man is with himself.

Distinction is the consequence, never the object of a great mind.

The greatest of all fools is the proud fool--who is at the mercy of every fool he meets.

Never expect justice from a vain man; if he has the negative magnanimity not to disparage you, it is the most you can expect.

Never judge a work of art by its defects.

Desert being the essential condition of praise, there can be no reality in the one without the other.

Reputation is but a synonym of popularity: dependent on suffrage, to be increased or diminished at the will of the voters.

No man knows himself as an original.

The most common disguise of Envy is in praise of what is subordinate.

Make no man your idol, for the best man must have faults; and his faults will insensibly become yours, in addition to your own.

The cradle rocks above an abyss, and common sense tells us that our existence is but a brief crack of light between two eternities of darkness.

The truth is like a lion

If I knew what to doI'd do more than write a song for you

No one OWES you a THING. So don’t EXPECT it. You’re on your OWN.

There is a leader in every manager, there is not a manager in every leader.

Sometimes a good love song can change the world and create positive energy more than any political song can.

Whatever is expressed is impressed. Whatever you say to yourself, with emotion, generates thoughts, ideas and behaviors consistent with those words.

We may say, that not only the soul (the mirror of an indestructible universe) is indestructible, but also the animal itself is, although its mechanism is frequently destroyed in parts.

Life is a wheel. The more you give, the more you get back.

Five hundred souls. I carried them in my fingers, like suitcases. Or I'd throw them over my shoulder. It was only the the children I carried in my arms.