The wisdom of providence is as much revealed in the rarity of genius, as in the circumstance that not everyone is deaf or blind.

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.

Creativity is the ability to introduce order into the randomness of nature.

I get to swim in the ocean every single day, which is a very, very important thing to do to stay connected.

There is nothing in nature quite so joyful as the very young and silly lamb - odd that it should develop into that dull and sober animal the sheep.

That is the accursed thing about small surroundings -- they make the soul small.

There can never be such a thing as a free market, because it is human nature to cheat, monopolize, and buy off others so as to corner the market.

Cry when you get a Golden Globe. Then you can get an Oscar nomination.

All time is wasted that is not spent in seeking God

I am very proud to be Italian.

The bigger the dream, the more important to the team.