Music is not written in red, white and blue. It is written in the heart's blood of the composer.

The first rule in opera is the first rule in life: see to everything yourself

If I'd been a housemaid I'd have been the best in Australia - I couldn't help it. It's got to be perfection for me.

If you wish to understand me at all (and to write an autobiography is only to open a window into one's heart) you must understand first and foremost, that I am an Australian.

There are two things I like stiff and one of them's jelly.

What are we singers but the silver-voiced messengers of the poet and the musician?

You won’t be famous until people start saying the worst things they can about you. Don’t worry! It’s a good sign!

One of the drawbacks of Fame is that one can never escape from it.

Always sing below your potential.

If I'd been a housemaid I'd have been the best in Australia-I couldn't help it. It's got to be perfection for me.

The notion that a human being should be constantly happy is a uniquely modern, uniquely American, uniquely destructive idea.

If we remain determined to shape a new and better world of separate, sovereign nations, this new century will be a happier one.

All liars ... lie to protect themselves, to shield their egos from the raw pain of truth.

The only intelligence investing is value investing...to acquire more than one is paying for.

Face your potential. It's been staring at you for far too long.

You can't just will your dreams to come true. You have to work hard. You have to give 'em wings, arms, legs...whatever it takes to make your dreams come true.

Real true faith is man's weakness leaning on God's strength.

Many men are stored full of unused knowledge. Like loaded guns that are never fired off, or military magazines in times of peace, they are stuffed with useless ammunition.

The trouble is that everyone talks about reforming others and no one thinks about reforming himself.

The man abandoned by his friends, one after another, without just cause, will acquire, the reputation of being hard to please, changeable, ungrateful, unsociable.