“I would not kill my enemies, but I will make them get down on their knees. I will, I can, I must.”

I cannot switch my voice. My voice is not like an elevator going up and down.

When the curtain rises, the only thing that speaks is courage.

You are born an artist or you are not. And you stay an artist, dear, even if your voice is less of a fireworks. The artist is always there.

That is the difference between good teachers and great teachers: good teachers make the best of a pupil’s means; great teachers foresee a pupil’s ends.

Love is so much better when you are not married.

It’s a terrible thing to go through life thinking that you have a rock on your side when you haven’t.

I was always too mature for my age – and not very happy. I had no young friends. I wish I could go back to those days. If I could only live it all again, how I would play and enjoy other girls. What a fool I was.

Don’t talk to me about rules, dear. Wherever I stay I make the goddam rules.

I will always be as difficult as necessary to achieve the best.

I will not be sued! I have the voice of an angel!

ART is domination. It’s making people think that for that precise moment in time there is only one way, one voice. Yours.

I want to be a mature artist with a different kind of thinking.

The public is a monster and that is why I am not eager to return to the stage.

Paris dictates fashion to the whole world.

There must be a law against forcing children to perform at an early age. Children should have a wonderful childhood. They should not be given too much responsibility.

I don’t know what happens to me on stage. Something else seems to take over.

Reveal not every secret you have to a friend, for how can you tell but that friend may hereafter become and enemy. And bring not all mischief you are able to upon an enemy, for he may one day become your friend.

O wise man, wash your hands of that friend who associates with your enemies.

Always meet petulance with gentleness and perverseness with kindness. A gentle hand can lead even en elephant by a hair. Reply to thine enemy with gentleness.

Among the clergy we find our most violent enemies, those most opposed to any change in woman’s position.

Two orders of mankind are the enemies of church and state; the king without clemency, and the holy man without learning.

There is an old saying which, from its truth, has become proverbial, that friendships should be immortal, enmities mortal.

Refusing to forgive is like ingesting a lethal dose of poison and hoping it kills my enemy.

Under the influence of fear, which always leads men to take a pessimistic view of things, they magnified their enemies’ resources, and minimized their own.