“In art as in love, instinct is enough.”

Until one has loved an animal, a part of one’s soul remains unawakened.

The books that everybody admires are those that nobody reads.

All the good writers of confessions, from Augustine onwards, are men who are still a little in love with their sins.

Wandering re-establishes the original harmony which once existed between man and the universe.

We have never heard the devil’s side of the story, God wrote all the book.

It is good to collect things, but it is better to go on walks.

Whatever one may do, one is always alone in the world.

If fifty million people say a foolish thing, it is still a foolish thing.

As to the kind of truth one finds in books, it is a truth that enables us sometimes to discern what things are not, without ever enabling us to discover what they are.

Armenia is dying, but it will survive. The little blood that is left is precious blood that will give birth to a heroic generation. A nation that does not want to die, does not die.

To accomplish great things, we must dream as well as act.

Determination. To accomplish great things, we must not only act, but also dream. Not only plan, but also believe.

Man is so made that he can only find relaxation from one kind of labor by taking up another.

The law, in its majestic equality, forbids rich and poor alike to sleep under bridges, to beg in the streets, and to steal their bread.

It is the certainty that they possess the truth that makes men cruel.

All changes, even the most longed for, must have their melancholy

The worst thing that being an artist could do to you would be that it would make you slightly unhappy constantly.

The whole art of teaching is only the art of awakening the natural curiosity of the mind for the purpose of satisfying it afterwards.

Only the very greatest art invigorates without consoling.

Inspire me with love for my art and for thy creatures. In the sufferer let me see only the human being.

An artist’s only concern is to shoot for some kind of perfection, and on his own terms, not anyone else’s.

It is easier for women to succeed in business, the arts, and politics in America than in Europe.

What one does in one’s art, that is the breath of one’s being. What one does in one’s life, that is a bagatelle for the outsiders to fuss about.

I’m an artist. I produce, I direct, and all of that goes into the music.