Laziness acknowledges the relation of the present to the past but ignores its relation to the future; impatience acknowledge its relation to the future but ignores its relation to the past; neither the lazy nor the impatient man, that is, accepts the present instant in its full reality and so cannot love his neighbour completely.

A god who is both self-sufficient and content to remain so could not interest us enough to raise the question of his existence.

In the end, art is small beer. The really serious things are earning one's living so as not to be a parasite and loving one's neighbor.

Soft as the earth is mankind and both need to be altered.

An honest self-portrait is extremely rare because a man who has reached the degree of self-consciousness presupposed by the desire to paint his own portrait has almost always also developed an ego-consciousness which paints himself painting himself, and introduces artificial highlights and dramatic shadows.

No person can be a great leader unless he takes genuine joy in the successes of those under him.

The only way to spend New Year's Eve is either quietly with friends or in a brothel. Otherwise when the evening ends and people pair off, someone is bound to be left in tears.