Catherine the Great

“You should know our mania for building is stronger than ever. It is a diabolical thing. It consumes money and the more you build, the more you want to build. It’s a sickness like being addicted to alcohol.

The title of Queen rang sweet to my ears, child though I was. … This idea of a crown began running in my head then like a tune, and has been running a lot in it ever since.

Don’t worry about things you cannot alter.

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

One does not always do the best there is. One does the best one can. – Catherine the Great

God, grant us our desires, and grant them quickly.

All I can do is be me, whoever that is.

[Moving to the West] was a culture shock. I had never seen cereal before! We had cottage cheese and pancakes in Russia, not colorful circles that came in cardboard boxes.

Happy New Year to all, including to my many enemies and those who have fought me and lost so badly they just don’t know what to do. Love!

In a mad world, only the mad are sane.

Some people give time, some money, some their skills and connections, some literally give their life’s blood. But everyone has something to give.

I was brought up to be a gentleman. That means you know how to walk, talk and dress the part.

Respect for sovereignity, for privacy, for total independence. Gentle alliances against loneliness, they were, cool rational love-affairs without the love.

When your life is nearly over, you will regret it if you look back and recall too many nights when you made excuses instead of making love.

If you can find a way to be truly ambivalent about what people think about you as an artist you’re completely freed up because you just end up doing things that turn you on creatively, and then as a person you really try and drown the noise.

Time you enjoy wasting, was not wasted.

I am not young enough to know everything.

Procrastination is the art of keeping up with yesterday.

Improvements have been coming so quickly that the past is being lost to the rising generation, and it can be preserved only by putting it in a form where it may be seen and felt. That is the reason behind this collection.

Who looks outside, dreams; who looks inside, awakes.

Everything that irritates us about others can lead us to an understanding of ourselves.