The reason we all like to think so well of others is that we are all afraid for ourselves. The basis of optimism is sheer terror.

I don't want to be at the mercy of my emotions. I want to use them, to enjoy them, and to dominate them.

Behind every exquisite thing that existed, there was something tragic.

The books that the world calls immoral are books that show the world its own shame.

Oh, brothers! I don't care for brothers. My elder brother won't die, and my younger brothers seem never to do anything else.

If a man treats life artistically, his brain is his heart.

What fire does not destroy, it hardens

All art is at once surface and symbol. Those who go beneath the surface do so at their peril.

Whenever a man does a thoroughly stupid thing, it is always from the noblest motives.

Every portrait that is painted with feeling is a portrait of the artist, not of the sitter.

The basis of optimism is sheer terror.

I wish you could be kissed, Jane, ” he said. “Because I would beg just one off you. Under all this.” He flailed an arm toward the stars.

Wise men say nothing in dangerous times

... but one loves, and when one is on the brink of death, one turns around to look backward, and one says to oneself: "I have often suffered, I have sometimes been wrong, but I have loved.

School was a waste of time for me. I was bored and left at 16. I started taking correspondence courses at college instead. I did incredibly well. I won an award for my grades.

I'm an idol of cinema? Oh, wow.

Good manners - the longer I live the more convinced I am of it - are a priceless insurance against failure and loneliness. And anyone can have them.

The easiest way to stay awake during an after-dinner speech is to deliver it.

Great books are written for Christianity much oftener than great deeds are done for it. City libraries tell us of the reign of Jesus Christ but city streets tell us of the reign of Satan.

The greatest teachers are the ones that turn a B student into an A student, or a failing student into a B student.

It can therefore be said that, from the viewpoint of the doctrine of the faith, there are no difficulties in explaining the origin of man in regard to the body, by means of the theory of evolution.