“Art for art’s sake, with no purpose, for any purpose perverts art. But art achieves a purpose which is not its own. (1804)”

The great question in life is the suffering we cause, and the most ingenious metaphysics do not justify the man who has broken the heart that loved him.

There are things one does not say for a long time, but, once they are said, one never stops repeating them.

No duty, however, binds us to these so-called laws, whose corrupting influence menaces what is noblest in our being.

There is a bizarre notion according to which it is claimed that because men are corrupt, it is necessary to give certain of them all the more power… on the contrary, they must be given less power.

Every time government attempts to handle our affairs, it costs more and the results are worse than if we had handled them ourselves.

Nearly always, so as to live at peace with ourselves, we disguise our own impotence and weakness as calculation and policy; it is our way of placating that half of our being which is in a sense a spectator of the other.

We all have a role to play in achieving this goal.

We can never achieve absolute truth but we can live hopefully by a system of calculated probabilities.

So I think we have a lot of room to grow and be a better society, and it’s a constant battle. It’s an exciting opportunity to be active.

The challenge, really, on any new film is to try to avoid that and achieve a few moments that aren’t cliche.

If it’s something I can’t achieve, I tell them straight.

There is a political process which we are trying to achieve through what is called the Vienna Group.

We may achieve climate, but weather is thrust upon us.

If my poetry aims to achieve anything, it’s to deliver people from the limited ways in which they see and feel.