“A youth of frolic, an old age of cards.”

Never find fault with the absent.

Learning is like mercury, one of the most powerful and excellent things in the world in skillful hands; in unskillful, the most mischievous.

For what I have publish’d, I can only hope to be pardon’d; but for what I have burned, I deserve to be prais’d.

Act well your part, there all the honour lies.

Many men have been capable of doing a wise thing, more a cunning thing, but very few a generous thing.

Strength of mind is exercise, not rest.

To err is human; to forgive, divine.

Lulled in the countless chambers of the brain, our thoughts are linked by many a hidden chain; awake but one, and in, what myriads rise!

Who dare to love their country, and be poor.

Vice is a monster of so frightful mien As to be hated needs but to be seen; Yet seen too oft, familiar with her face, We first endure, then pity, then embrace.

What is it to be wise? ‘Tis but to know how little can be known, To see all others’ faults, and feel our own.

Praise from a friend, or censure from a foe, Are lost on hearers that our merits know.

The greatest magnifying glasses in the world are a man’s own eyes when they look upon his own person.

An excuse is worse and more terrible than a lie; for an excuse is a lie guarded.

Beauty draws us with a single hair.

Passions are the gales of life.

We eat a lot of lean meat and fresh vegetables.. You are what you eat, you know. When I’m 100 I’ll still be doing pin-ups.

I took classical piano lessons from the age of five.

Balding if God’s way of showing you are only human… He takes the hair off your head and puts it in your ears.

Being male is a matter of birth. Being a man is a matter of age. But being a Gentleman is a matter of choice.

It’s taken me to be an older guy, an old man, to have an old man’s voice. Because I only liked old men’s voices. As a kid, I didn’t like pip-squeaked singers.

When I was 10, I beat up the school bully. His arms were in casts. That’s what gave me the courage.

The acting style that has emerged from HD, because of the contrast and how sharp the picture is, it’s more neutrally played. The main character is very minamalistic. That’s what works in this digital age.

There was a certain moment. I was about 61 – two, three or four, and I got a script. And I sent it back to the producer saying – “I don’t wanna do it. The part’s too small.” And he sent it back to me, he said, “You shouldn’t read the lover. You should read the father.