A essência do pensamento, tal como a essência da vida, é o crescimento.

A educação é uma coisa admirável, mas é bom recordar que nada do que vale a pena saber pode ser ensinado.

A insatisfação é o primeiro passo para o progresso de um homem ou de uma nação.

A arte começa onde a imitação acaba.

A diferença entre a literatura e o jornalismo é que o jornalismo é ilegível e a literatura não é lida.

A arte é a forma mais intensa de individualismo que o mundo já conheceu.

A caridade cria uma multidão de pecados.

A experiência é o nome que damos aos nossos erros.

A infância não é mais do que um longo percurso de inocente escuta às portas para se ouvir o que se devia ignorar.

A mais alta e mais baixa forma de crítica é de género autobiográfico.

Aquilo a que chamamos de falta de sinceridade é muito simplesmente o método pelo qual multiplicamos as nossas personalidades.

A sociedade frequentemente perdoa o criminoso, ela nunca perdoa o sonhador.

A moralidade é apenas a atitude que adoptamos para com as pessoas de que pessoalmente não gostamos.

As religiões morrem quando se prova que são verdadeiras. A ciência é uma sequência de religiões mortas.

A obra de arte deve dominar o espectador. O espectador não deve dominar a obra de arte.

As pessoas hoje conhecem o preço de tudo e o valor de nada.

Aqueles que não fazem nada estão sempre dispostos a criticar os que fazem algo.

As nossas caras são verdadeiras máscaras que nos foram dadas para ocultarem os pensamentos.

A moda é o que a gente traz, o que está fora de moda é o que trazem os outros.

A morte é a única coisa que me terrifica. Detesto-a. Hoje em dia pode-se sobreviver a tudo excepto isso.

Earlier in my career, I was much more super-sharey. There were moments when I wanted to process things that were happening to me more privately, and I didn't have the space to do it, because once you let people in, they're in, and you don't get to say, 'Oh, I want this for myself.'

I had to study acting to basically educate myself.

My honor is my loyalty.

My heart goes out to many women that I've met across the country who barely make enough to make a living, and they want to have kids. That's very understandable, but what do you do with the kids?

I don't always feel fierce and fearless, but I do feel like I'm a rock star at being human.

'Black Swan' was absolutely unbelievable. I had always dreamed of working with Darren Aronofsky, and Natalie Portman, Winona Ryder, Barbara Hershey, Mila Kunis and Vincent Cassel. The entire cast was really a dream cast, and it was amazing to work with these powerhouse women that I've just admired for so many years.

When someone demands blind obedience, you'd be a fool not to peek.

My proposition is that music is at the heart of what 'The Magic Flute' means: that it's Mozart's music, not the words, we should be attending to. Music expresses what can't be expressed otherwise.

I'm a big fan of gallows humor. When my aunt passed away, she was in a coma for a day before my cousins pulled the plug. And the amount of joking and base humor that went on that day around her bed was so insane. It's crazy how people talk when something horrible is happening.

For his heart was in his work, and the heart giveth grace unto every art.

I think what I do is borderline art. Most people who do borderline art have to have other jobs, so I'm very grateful.

I don't recall exactly when I first began reading about Lewis and Clark and their Corps of Discovery, but I suspect that it was in fourth grade.

Any art worthy of its name should address 'life', 'man', 'nature', 'death' and 'tragedy'.

Don’t find love, let love find you, that’s why it’s called “Falling in Love”. You don’t force yourself to fall, you just fall.

Give me wine to wash me clean of the weather stains of cares

Traveling; it leaves you speechless, then turns you into a storyteller.

Working in an underdeveloped land for two or three years, the volunteer will often find that his work is routine and full of frustration.

As an artist you have the luxury of maybe presenting an issue in a certain way, as opposed to actually solving it.

The Internet was a saving grace for promoting and exposing, and even creating. It's a parallel world to the music industry that already exists, and I'm glad to be a part of it.

I discovered 'Rite of Spring' when I was 21. As a matter of fact, not with orchestra first, because it was still a work which was not often performed. Don't forget that I was 19 in 1944, still the Occupation time. So it was performed slightly after the end of the war, in 1945.

Allopathic doctors used to laugh condescendingly at those who posited that psychological, emotional and spiritual factors were important contributors to the sickness as well as healing of the body.

You learn that different people are made differently, and they have different ways to reach to their goals. Some people reach their limits of what they can produce and create, and that doesn't necessarily make them bad. It is just that they may not be right for that role in that instance.

The happiest people don't worry too much about whether life is fair or not, they just get on with it.

I don't have big security guards. I don't have an entourage.