Belief sometimes precedes understanding; faith sometimes precedes scientific evidence.

Italy offers one the most priceless of all one's possessions - one's own soul.

There is something worse than dying, and that is humiliation - at least so it seemed to me.

Collecting is like sex; satisfaction renews and creates new appetites.

I love medieval cities; they do not clamor for attention; they possess their souls - their riches - in quiet; formal, courteous, they reveal themselves slowly, stone by stone, garden by garden; hidden treasures wait calmly to be loved and yield to introspective wandering.

Every generation reinvents the wheel - and in the process it often adds to rather than subtracts from a woman's burdens.

There are no original ideas. There are only original people.