Catherine the Great

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

You were in a mood to quarrel. Please inform me once the inclination passes.

In politics a capable ruler must be guided by circumstances, conjectures and conjunctions.

Men make love more intensely at 20, but make love better, however, at 30.

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

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.

Every nation ridicules other nations, and all are right.

Blood banks are all closed; you can’t use others to keep you warm.

I grew up not understanding what was true and what was not true. It gave me a sense of unreality.

Always and never are two words you should always remember never to use.

Life did not stop, and one had to live.

I haven’t put a pencil to a piece of paper, working out a problem, in years; I do it in my head.

You are mine, and that means I am on your side even when no one else is.

Only those who will risk going too far can possibly find how far one can go.

The gifted man bears his gifts into the world, not for his own benefit, but for the people among whom he is placed; for the gifts are not his, he himself is a gift to the community.

A great wind is blowing, and that gives you either imagination or a headache.

Man is a comparative being. Substandard things must go before super-standard things can come.

Man is always more than he can know of himself; consequently, his accomplishments, time and again, will come as a surprise to him.

Wagon Train was on. It seemed to be beaming in from some foreign country. I shut that off, too, and went into another room, a windowless one with a painted door – a dark cavern with a floor-to-ceiling library. I switched on the lamps. The place had an overpowering presence of literature and you couldn’t help but lose your passion for dumbness.

Laughing at our mistakes can lengthen our own life. Laughing at someone else’s can shorten it.

Progress is a new season and the rule of progress is everything in its season.