When fiction rises pleasing to the eye, men will believe, because they love the lie; but truth herself, if clouded with a frown, must have some solemn proof to pass her down.

Who often, but without success, have prayed for apt Alliteration's artful aid.

England a fortune-telling host, As num'rous as the stars, could boast; Matrons, who toss the cup, and see The grounds of Fate in grounds of tea.

Genius is of no country.

Nature listening stood, whilst Shakespeare play'd And wonder'd at the work herself had made.

When satire flies abroad on falsehood's wing, Short is her life, and impotent her sting; But when to truth allied, the wound she gives Sinks deep, and to remotest ages lives.

The surest way to health, say what they will, Is never to suppose we shall be ill; Most of the ills which we poor mortals know From doctors and imagination flow.

Weak is that throne, and in itself unsound, Which takes not solid virtue for its ground.

A joke's a very serious thing.

No tribute is laid on castles in the air.

The rigid saint, by whom no mercy's shown To saints whose lives are better than his own.

With this ring I thee wed with my body I thee worship and with all my worldly goods I thee endow.

Strength and compassion are not mutually exclusive.

Audiences change because life changes. Countries change geographically, climatically, socially and morally. Many things happen, and cinema, in a sense, reflects what's happening in the world.

Our victory is sure to come, and I can endure anything but recreancy to principle.

I'd rather dig a ditch than go to a dinner party with people I don't know.

Big dress, cocktails, party - I love that. It is my work, but my work allow me to have glamour, to wear beautiful and amazing dresses, to go to big ceremonies.

Mussolini never killed anyone. Mussolini used to send people on vacation in internal exile.

I have better use for my brain than to poison it with alcohol. To put alcohol in the human brain is like putting sand in the bearings of an engine.

Nothing so completely verifies our perception of a thing as our killing of it.

Writing is my way of expressing - and thereby eliminating - all the various ways we can be wrong-headed.