The first element of greatness is fundamental humbleness (this should not be confused with servility); the second is freedom from self; the third is intrepid courage, which, taken in its widest interpretation, generally goes with truth; and the fourth-the power of love-although I have put it last, is the rarest.

Rumor is untraceable, incalculable, and infectious.

What a pity, when Christopher Colombus discovered America, that he ever mentioned it.

There is nothing more perplexing in life than to know at what point you should surrender your intellect to your faith.

There are big men, men of intellect, intellectual men, men of talent and men of action; but the great man is difficult to find, and it needs --apart from discernment --a certain greatness to find him.

Symbols are the imaginative signposts of life.

She spends her day powdering her face till she looks like a bled pig.