Catherine the Great

All this is only for the mice and myself to admire!

I like to praise and reward in a loud voice and to scold in a whisper.

Happiness and unhappiness are in the heart and spirit of each one of us: If you feel unhappy, then place yourself above that and act so that your happiness does not get to be dependent on anything.

You philosophers are lucky men. You write on paper and paper is patient. Unfortunate Empress that I am, I write on the susceptible skins of living beings.

I have no way to defend my borders but to extend them.

I sincerely want peace, not because I lack resources for war, but because I hate bloodshed.

If you get good at what you do, part of getting there is enjoying what other players do.

2 is not equal to 3, not even for large values of 2.

Chop your own wood and it will warm you twice.

Golf is a good walk spoiled.

When you cease to exist, then who will you blame?

Positive anything is better than negative thinking.

You’re never given more pain than you can handle. You never, ever get more than you can take.

An artist is always alone if he is an artist. What the artist needs is loneliness.

Being home alone at night makes me a bit nervous. If I’m at home alone, I have to sleep on the sofa – I can’t face going to bed. I’m there with the TV on and all the lights on. I’m not very brave about anything in life. In tennis, yes. In everything else, not very.

Opportunities are usually disguised by hard work, so most people don’t recognize them.

Millions long for immortality who do not know what to do with themselves on a rainy Sunday afternoon.

You are an aperture through which the universe is looking at and exploring itself.

To kill a relative of whom you are tired is something. But to inherit his property afterwards, that is genuine pleasure.

Not everything I write will be a masterpiece; I know that. It is a process selecting words to convey feelings never meant to be spoken. So maybe I’ve been searching for what’s already been said and this is the finest way I can say it. I love you, in everything I am, I love you.

The difference between winners and losers is that winners do things losers don’t want to do.