I've always considered myself smarter than everyone around me, and sometimes, believe me, I've been ashamed of it. At the least, all my life I've looked away and never could look people straight in the eye.

At first, art imitates life. Then life will imitate art.Then life will find its very existence from the arts.

Humanity can live without science, it can live without bread, but it cannot live without beauty. Without beauty, there would be nothing left to do in this life. Here the secret lies. Here lies the entire story.

Father monks, why do you fast! Why do you expect reward in heaven for that?...No, saintly monk, you try being virtuous in the world, do good to society, without shutting yourself up in a monastery at other people's expense, and without expecting a reward up aloft for it--you'll find that a bit harder.

Can a man of perception respect himself at all?

..., twice two is four is not life, gentlemen, but the beginning of death.

Nothing has ever been more insupportable for a man and a human society than freedom. –The Grand Inquisitor