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Every composer knows the anguish and despair occasioned by forgetting ideas which one has not time to write down.
In my belief, you cannot deal with the most serious things in the world unless you also understand the most amusing.
Beyond a critical point within a finite space, freedom diminishes as numbers increase….The human question is not how many can possibly survive within the system, but what kind of existence is possible for those who do survive.
Imperious, choleric, irascible, extreme in everything, with a dissolute imagination the like of which has never been seen, atheistic to the point of fanaticism, there you have me in a nutshell, and kill me again or take me as I am, for I shall not change.
Seek out that particular mental attribute which makes you feel most deeply and vitally alive, along with which comes the inner voice which says, 'This is the real me,' and when you have found that attitude, follow it.
Habits…the only reason they persist is that they are offering some satisfaction…You allow them to persist by not seeking any other, better form of satisfying the same needs. Every habit, good or bad, is acquired and learned in the same way - by finding that it is a means of satisfaction.
I used to always think that I'd look back on us crying and laugh, but, I never thought I'd look back on us laughing and cry.
For God's sake, do not drag me into another war! I am worn down, and worn out, with crusading and defending Europe, and protecting mankind; I must think a little of myself.
When the Special Theory of Relativity began to germinate in me, I was visited by all sorts of nervous conflicts… I used to go away for weeks in a state of confusion.
To me, the greatest pleasure of writing is not what it's about, but the music the words make.
I take as my guide the hope of a saint: in crucial things, unity - in important things, diversity - in all things, generosity.
I can look sharp as well as another, and let me alone to keep the cobwebs out of my eyes.
Konstantin Ustinovich Chernenko
Merely having an open mind is nothing. The object of opening the mind, as of opening the mouth, is to shut it again on something solid.
It's no coincidence that in no known language does the phrase 'As pretty as an airport' appear.
All government, indeed, every human benefit and enjoyment, every virtue and every prudent act, is founded on compromise and barter.
Old age, believe me, is a good and pleasant thing. It is true you are gently shouldered off the stage, but then you are given such a comfortable front stall as spectator.
Never invoke the gods unless you really want them to appear. It annoys them very much.
Hegel was right when he said that we learn from history that man can never learn anything from history.
