I feel sure that coups d'état would go much better if there were seats, boxes, and stalls so that one could see what was happening and not miss anything.

If there is a God, atheism must seem to Him as less of an insult than religion.

A painting in a museum hears more ridiculous opinions than anything else in the world.

Debauchery is perhaps an act of despair in the face of infinity.

A poet is a man who puts up a ladder to a star and climbs it while playing a violin.

People don't like the true and simple; they like fairy tales and humbug.

Historians tell the story of the past, novelists the story of the present.

As a general truth, it is safe to say that any picture that produces a moral impression is a bad picture.

Barbarism is needed every four or five hundred years to bring the world back to life. Otherwise it would die of civilization.

There are only two great currents in the history of mankind: the baseness which makes conservatives and the envy which makes revolutionaries.

Surely nothing has to listen to so many stupid remarks as a painting in a museum.

Most of us regard good luck as our right, and bad luck as a betrayal of that right.

And money is not something to go mad about ... Money is for food and clothes and comfort, and a visit to the pictures. Money is to make happy the lives of children.

truth ... is the first casualty of tyranny.

Hate has no place in the house of God. No one should be excluded from our love, our compassion or our concern because of race or gender, faith or ethnicity - or because of their sexual orientation.

The essence of all religion is to be willing to risk your life for a belief - not for survival.

Labor unions should study and read the Bible instead of asking for more money. When people get right with God, they are better workers.

The summit is not the only place on the mountain.

We try to live every moment like that, dwelling peacefully in the present moment, and respond to events with compassion.

If we accept that there is no such thing as 'zero risk' then we should not spin the meaning of words with assertions such as 'all accidents are preventable'.

But there is much to be said for giving up ... grand ambitions and living the most ordinary life imaginable.