“Trouble’s made us kin.”

Rome – the city of visible history, where the past of a whole hemisphere seems moving in funeral procession with strange ancestral images and trophies gathered from afar.

Jews are not fit for Heaven, but on earth they are most useful.

I have nothing to tell except travellers’ stories, which are always tiresome, like the description of a play which was very exciting to those who saw it.

If you deliver an opinion at all, it is mere stupidity not to do it with an air of conviction and well-founded knowledge. You make it your own in uttering it, and naturally get fond of it.

Conscientious people are apt to see their duty in that which is the most painful course.

What loneliness is more lonely than distrust?

A friend is one to whom one may pour out the contents of one’s heart, chaff and grain together, knowing that gentle hands will take and sift it, keep what is worth keeping, and with a breath of kindness, blow the rest away.

There is a great deal of unmapped country within us which would have to be taken into account in an explanation of our gusts and storms.

Wear a smile and have friends; wear a scowl and have wrinkles.

Blessed is the man, who having nothing to say, abstains from giving wordy evidence of the fact.

It’s never too late to be who you were meant to be.

The troublesome ones in a family are usually either the wits or the idiots.

The years between fifty and seventy are the hardest. You are always being asked to do things, and yet you are not decrepit enough to turn them down.

I think I dislike what I don’t like more than I like what I like.

The golden moments in the stream of life rush past us, and we see nothing but sand; the angels come to visit us, and we only know them when they are gone.

A good horse makes short miles.

Any individual can contribute its own belief. And our society or even our government are made by the people. The people would have the final voice, but it requires each individual to act. If we don’t act, then the result is very clear.

The Internet changes the structure of society all the time — this massiveness made of individuals.

I’ve always wanted to have a book published – it was a dream of mine, but the thought of actually writing a book made me feel really sick.

George W. Bush and Tony Blair made the promise that they would not tolerate failed states because they could become a haven for terrorists. And today? The number increases.

It was just me in my bedroom. It gave me freedom and made me happy.

I believe [the architecture firm] Herzog and de Meuron and our collaboration made the product the best it could be.

Of course, most luxury goods in China are for corrupted officials and their relatives. And that made China become the biggest luxury-goods market.

We said that pledges made in the peace process need to be fulfilled as soon as possible.