We are sacrificing ourselves for our ready-made goods; we are consumers and live in such a way that the means may consume the end.

The streets of Vienna are paved with culture, the streets of other cities with asphalt.

Someone who can write aphorisms should not fritter away his time in essays.

Corruption is worse than prostitution. The latter might endanger the morals of an individual, the former invariably endangers the morals of the entire country.

I had a terrible vision: I saw an encyclopedia walk up to a polymath and open him up.

The sound principle of a topsy-turvy lifestyle in the framework of an upside-down world order has stood every test.

An aphorism is never exactly true; it is either a half-truth or one-and-a-half truths.

A writer is someone who can make a riddle out of an answer.

Newspapers have roughly the same relationship to life as fortune-tellers to metaphysics.

Christianity has enriched the erotic meal with the appetizer of curiosity and spoiled it with the dessert of remorse.

The devil is an optimist if he thinks he can make people worse than they are.

Failed relationships can be described as so much wasted make-up.

I was behaving, just like I promised, but fate intervened.

If you play it safe in life, you've decided that you don't want to grow anymore.

I quit being afraid when my first venture failed and the sky didn't fall down.

No person will make a great business who wants to do it all himself or get all the credit.

I was fortunate as a young actor, to go straight to the RSC, where I learned that being an actor can bring with it wonderful responsibilities.

These things do not happen by chance. There is much less luck in public affairs than some suppose.

Don't make an opinion on me if you don't know nothin' about me.

I don't want to beat people over the head with my political views. It's more about the humanitarian aspect of it.

You can't stay well without telling--and living--the truth.