“One secret of success in life is for a man to be ready for his opportunity when it comes.”

I have brought myself, by long meditation, to the conviction that a human being with a settled purpose must accomplish it, and that nothing can resist a will which will stake even existence upon its fulfillment.

It destroys one’s nerves to be amiable every day to the same human being.

Things must be done by parties, not by persons using parties as tools.

The choicest pleasures of life lie within the ring of moderation.

There is no waste of time in life like that of making explanations.

He has left them in the full enjoyment of their liberal positions, and he is himself a strict conservative of their garments.

Something unpleasant is coming when men are anxious to tell the truth.

Nationality is the miracle of political independence; race is the principle of physical analogy.

The first magic of love is our ignorance that it can ever end.

In politics nothing is contemptible.

I repeat… that all power is a trust; that we are accountable for its exercise; that from the people and for the people all springs, and all must exist.

We are all born for love. It is the principle of existence, and its only end.

The best security for civilization is the dwelling, and upon properly appointed and becoming dwellings depends, more than anything else, the improvement of mankind.

What we anticipate seldom occurs: but what we least expect generally happens.

War is never a solution; it is an aggravation.

Nature, like man, sometimes weeps from gladness.

I think the time is past when one may not say the names of Hitler and Luther in the same breath. They belong together; they are of the same old stamp.

What’s a joy to the one is a nightmare to the other.

Hell, look at the Bible: gods, devils, ghosts, witches, giants, resurrections. That’s one big horror story. And it’s the most popular book on the planet.

Comedy has been so good to me.

Why would I make one woman so miserable when I can make so many women very happy?

Even if the Israel-Palestine question were solved – and I think and hope that one day soon it will be – this wouldn’t stop one person from becoming a terrorist.

[Maurizio Arrivabene is quite a character] but only for himself and not for Formula One.

I am sure it will grow back.’ The doctor said, ‘You’re too young to know.’ …But in a year’s time that fluid came back, and that eye is just as good as the other one today.