You can't deny laughter; when it comes, it plops down in your favorite chair and stays as long as it wants.

Rich men's houses are seldom beautiful, rarely comfortable, and never original. It is a constant source of surprise to people of moderate means to observe how little a big fortune contributes to Beauty.

Domination delegates the physical violence on which it rests to the dominated.

Religion and art spring from the same root and are close kin. Economics and art are strangers.

Religion is like a knife: you can either use it to cut bread, or stick in someone's back.

External nature is only internal nature writ large.

Confusion of goals and perfection of means seems, in my opinion, to characterize our age.

I sound my barbaric yawp over the rooftops of the world.

Effective action is always unjust.

If everything isn't black and white, I say, 'Why the hell not?'

Freedom is from within.

Modesty and conscientiousness receive their reward only in novels. In life they are exploited and then shoved aside.

I recommend that the Statue of Liberty be supplemented by a Statue of Responsibility on the west coast.

In my ballets, woman is first. Men are consorts. God made men to sing the praises of women. They are not equal to men: They are better.

The good times of today are the sad thoughts of tomorrow.

All men are liable to error; and most men are, in many points, by passion or interest, under temptation to it.

In terms of an identity, an identity reflects an individuality, by definition. And, if there is a quality present, it is recognizable and it can be named. If you can't name it, it means you don't recognize it.

Sometimes glass glitters more than diamonds because it has more to prove.

The poor are prevented from thinking by the discipline of others, the rich by their own.

I don't say we all ought to misbehave, but we ought to look as if we could.

Being powerful is like being a lady. If you have to tell people you are, you aren't.