“People with courage and character always seem sinister to the rest.”

Passion is always a mystery and unaccountable, and unfortunately there is no doubt that life does not spare its purest children; often it is just the most deserving people who cannot help loving those that destroy them.

Madness, in a higher sense, is the beginning of all wisdom.

There is no reality except the one contained within us. That is why so many people live such an unreal life. They take the images outside them for reality and never allow the world within to assert itself.

The river is everywhere.

Any attempt to replace a personal conscience by a collective conscience does violence to the individual and is the first step toward totalitarianism.

Everything becomes a little different as soon as it is spoken out loud.

He had loved and he had found himself. Most people love to lose themselves.

And all the voices, all the goals, all the yearnings, all the sorrows, all the pleasures, all the good and evil, all of them together was the world. All of them together was the stream of events, the music of life.

Happiness is love, nothing else. A man who is capable of love is happy.

The deity is within you, not in ideas and books. Truth is lived, not taught.

The truth has a million faces, but there is only one truth.

You must find your dream, then the way becomes easy.

His life oscillates, as everyone’s does, not merely between two poles, such as the body and the spirit, the saint and the sinner, but between thousands and thousands.

Gentleness is stronger than severity, water is stronger than rock, love is stronger than force.

Opinions mean nothing; they may be beautiful or ugly, clever or foolish, anyone can embrace or reject them.

All higher humor begins with ceasing to take oneself seriously.

In a militia, the character of the laborer, artificer, or tradesman, predominates over that of the soldier: in a standing army, that of the soldier predominates over every other character.

The most important thing for a young man is to establish a credit, a reputation, character.

For me acting, comes straight from the heart. In that sense I don’t act at all. I think that to feel the character’s pain I have to be myself. Somewhere audiences see that.

Knowledge is essential to conquest; only according to our ignorance are we helpless. Thought creates character. Character can dominate conditions. Will creates circumstances and environment.

I am an actor, and I would like to reinvent myself through every character that I portray.

A family is a place where principles are hammered and honed on the anvil of everyday living.

You don’t get to be a jerk just because you’re skilled.

Your success stops where your character stops. You can never rise above the limitations of your character.