“A man who’s active and incisive can yet keep nail-care much in mind: why fight what’s known to be decisive? Custom is despot of mankind.”

Unrequited love is not an affront to man but raises him.

It is better to have dreamed a thousand dreams that never were than never to have dreamed at all.

Fearing no insult, asking for no crown, receive with indifference both flattery and slander, and do not argue with a fool.

Somewhere between obsession and compulsion is impulse.

Love passed, the Muse appeared, the weather of mind got clarity new-found; now free, I once more weave together emotion, thought, and magic sound.

I am married and happy. My only wish is that nothing will change.

Two fixed ideas can no more exist together in the moral world than two bodies can occupy one and the same place in the physical world.

To love all ages yield surrender; But to the young it’s raptures bring A blessing bountiful and tender- As storms refresh the fields of spring.

A deception that elevates us is dearer than a host of low truths.

Tis time, my friend, ’tis time! For rest the heart is aching; Days follow days in flight, and every day is taking, Fragments of being, while together you and I, Make plans to live. Look, all is dust, and we shall die.

The less we show our love to a woman, Or please her less, and neglect our duty, The more we trap and ruin her surely, In the flattering toils of philandery.

Moral maxims are surprisingly useful on occasions when we can invent little else to justify our actions.

As long as there is one heart on Earth where I still live, my memory will not die.

Cabbage soup and barley. They’re Russia’s national food. Both excellent in their way, but a shade monotonous.

I want to understand you, I study your obscure language.

Ballet is a dance executed by the human soul.

I wasn’t a kid growing up thinking, ‘One day I’ll get an Oscar and make a speech.’ That wasn’t on my mind.

I meant every word I said. And I hate that it would mean so much to me, to know that I cross your mind occasionally.

If you prayed as much as you complain and quarrel, you’d have a lot less to argue about and much more peace of mind.

But how shall I get ideas? ”Keep your wits open! Observe! Observe! Study! Study! But above all, Think! Think! And when a noble image is indelibly impressed upon the mind – Act!

The body does not create the mind; the Mind creates the body.

Your every act can open hearts and minds.

Divisions are imaginary lines drawn by small minds.

Strengthen your mind and refuse to carry the burden of mental and moral weakness acquired in past years; burn them in the fires of your present divine resolutions and right activities. By this constructive attitude you will attain freedom.