The celebrated painter Gainsborough got as much pleasure from seeing violins as from hearing them.

The Greeks possessed a knowledge of human nature we seem hardly able to attain to without passing through the strengthening hibernation of a new barbarism.

One might call habit a moral friction: something that prevents the mind from gliding over things but connects it with them and makes it hard for it to free itself from them.

Erudition can produce foliage without bearing fruit.

There exists a species of transcendental ventriloquism by means of which men can be made to believe that something said on earth comes from Heaven.

Just as the performance of the vilest and most wicked deeds requires spirit and talent, so even the greatest demand a certain insensitivity which under other circumstances we would call stupidity.

If there were only turnips and potatoes in the world, someone would complain that plants grow the wrong way.

Many things about our bodies would not seem to us so filthy and obscene if we did not have the idea of nobility in our heads.

To read means to borrow; to create out of one s readings is paying off one's debts.

Once we know our weaknesses they cease to do us any harm.

He who understands the wise is wise already.

Do not seek to follow in the footsteps of the wise

Still the mind in meditation and you will witness the heart’s signals and its inspired thoughts. For 20 to 30 minutes every day, capture inspired moments of heartfulness.

True, some land was bought by a few Cabinet Ministers. They bought the land. No minister, to my knowledge acquired land which was meant for resettlement.

You need good training partners - because you’re only as good as your training partners - and a strong desire to always get better.

I got a few things, because I think the props are so beautiful as much as anything else. The detail of the work is something that one has no idea of.

The piano song that I do in the movie [The Hangover], it's a great example, that was never - that wasn't in the script.

If Spain goes under, Italy will come under even more scrutiny.

Logic is not satisfied with assertion. It cares nothing for the opinions of the great; nothing for the prejudices of the many, and least of all for the superstitions of the dead.

I consider each of my dollars to be investment "soldiers," and their mission is "freedom."

If an individual is born with the obligation to obey, who is born with the right to command?