The art critics on some of Britain's newspapers could as easily have been assigned gardening or travel, and been cheerfully employed for life.

Being a good artist is the toughest job you could pick, and you have to be a little nuts to take it on.

My aim in life isn't so much the pursuit of happiness as the happiness of pursuit.

Art collectors are pretty insignificant in the scheme of things. What matters and survives is the art.

By and large, talent is in such short supply that mediocrity can be taken for brilliance rather more than genius can go undiscovered.

Nothing is as uplifting as standing before a great painting whether it was painted in 1505 or last Tuesday.

Be the Worst You Can Be: Life's Too Long for Patience and Virtue

The fact that in the last 10 years only five of the 40 Turner Prize nominees have been painters tells you more about curators than about the state of painting today.

There are no rules about investment. Sharks can be good. Artist's dung can be good. Oil on canvas can be good.

I don't buy art in order to leave a mark or to be remembered; clutching at immortality is of zero interest to anyone sane.

Nobody can give you advice after you've been collecting for a while. If you don't enjoy making your own decisions, you're never going to be much of a collector anyway.

Hiding in His service.

We can improve our relationships with others by leaps and bounds if we become encouragers instead of critics.

What can you say about a society that says that God is dead and Elvis is alive?

I am working for a better United Nations. Nothing is perfect. You should never rely on only one source, but rather rely on those you believe in the most.

That's what we're here on this Earth for, to help others.

When insolvent, pack minimally, with a valise tough enough to be thrown onto a London pavement from a first- or second-floor window. Insist on hotel rooms no higher.

God has allowed hard things in your life so you can show the world that your God is great and that knowing Him brings peace and joy, even when life is hard.

He who loves not flowers, has lost all love and fear of God.

When you come in the building with your guns don't take them off.

Everybody knows worse of himself than he knows of other men.