I call a lie: wanting not to see something one does see, wanting not to see something as one sees it... The most common lie is the lie one tells to oneself; lying to others is relatively the exception.

If you have an enemy, do not requite him evil with good, for that would put him to shame. Rather prove that he did you some good.

To die proudly when it is no longer possible to live proudly. Death of one's own free choice, death at the proper time, with a clear head and with joyfulness, consummated in the midst of children and witnesses: so that an actual leave-taking is possible while he who is leaving is still there.

Real dancers are the ones who can hear the music in their soul.

When one has not had a good father, one must create one.

If virtue goes to sleep, it will be more vigorous when it awakes.

It was a subtle refinement of God to learn Greek when he wished to write a book – and that he did not learn it better.