The willow which bends to the tempest often escapes better than the oak which resists it and so in great calamities it sometimes happens that light and frivolous spirits recover their elasticity and presence of mind sooner than those of a loftier character.

The conscious mind may be compared to a fountain playing in the sun and falling back into the great subterranean pool of subconscious from which it rises.

In spite of everything I shall rise again: I will take up my pencil which I have forsaken in my great discouragement and I will go on with my drawing.

The little may contrast with the great in painting but cannot be said to be contrary to it. Oppositions of colors contrast but there are also colors contrary to each other that is which produce an ill effect because they shock the eye when brought very near it.

The water in a vessel is sparkling the water in the sea is dark. The small truth has words which are clear the great truth has great silence.

I exhort you also to take part in the great combat which is the combat of life and greater than every other earthly conflict.

The greatest humiliation in life is to work hard on something from which you expect great appreciation and then fail to get it.

There are events which are so great that if a writer has participated in them his obligation is to write truly rather than assume the presumption of altering them with invention.

Poets utter great and wise things which they do not themselves understand.

Life is not an easy matter... You cannot live through it without falling into frustration and cynicism unless you have before you a great idea which raises you above personal misery above weakness above all kinds of perfidy and baseness.

Better a little which is well done than a great deal imperfectly.

To vilify a great man is the readiest way in which a little man can himself attain greatness.

Great indeed is the sublimity of the Creative to which all beings owe their beginning and which permeates all heaven.

All difficult things have their origin in that which is easy and great things in that which is small.

The wise man does not expose himself needlessly to danger since there are few things for which he cares sufficiently but he is willing in great crises to give even his life - knowing that under certain conditions it is not worthwhile to live.

I always seem to get inspiration and renewed vitality by contact with this great novel land of yours which sticks up out of the Atlantic.

Man becomes great exactly in the degree in which he works for the welfare of his fellow-men.

It is rather for us here dedicated to the great task remaining before us that from these honored dead we take increased devotion to that cause for which they gave the last full measure of devotion.

Most people say that it is the intellect which makes a great scientist. They are wrong: it is character.

The great question that has never been answered and which I have not yet been able to answer despite my thirty years of research into the feminine soul is 'What does a woman want?'

One of the most difficult speeches to prepare is an address to a graduation class which is why I don't often do them.

At the School of Visual Arts in New York you can get your degree in Net art which is really a fantastic way of thinking of theater in new ways.

I was never a Certified Public Accountant. I just had a degree in accounting. It would require passing a test which I would not have been able to do.

The Left regards the Constitution as defective and outmoded - in part because it impedes the government's ability to control institutions like churches and families which stand between the state and individuals.