“I overtook, coming from Italy,
In Germany, a great and famous Earl
Of England; the most goodly fashioned man
I ever saw: from head to foot in form
Rare and most absolute; he had a face
Like one of the most ancient honoured Romans
From whence his noblest family was derived;
He was besides of spirit passing great
Valiant and learned, and liberal as the sun,
Spoke and writ sweetly, or of learned subjects,
Or of the discipline of public weals:
And 'twas the Earl of Oxford.”

“In the spring of 1845, William Parsons, the third Earl of Rosse, began observing with his great six-foot telescope… The Earl was excited by what he was the first human to see: spiral patterns of stars, seemingly swirling in great 'spiral convolutions' about the centre of the galaxy. …No one could ever have seen the spiral pattern of stars in a galaxy unless they had looked through Rosse's telescope or seen his drawings. …I believe that Van Gogh would have seen those drawings in the press following the publicity attracted by them, or in Flammarion's book… and gained his astronomical inspiration from them.”

“I like to listen. I have learned a great deal from listening carefully. Most people never listen.”

“Eisenhower had about the most expressive face I ever painted, I guess. Just like an actor's. Very mobile. When he talked, he used all the facial muscles. And he had a great, wide mouth that I liked. When he smiled, it was just like the sun came out.”

“Like most of those who study history, he learned from the mistakes of the past how to make new ones.”

“I have learned that success in business, and perhaps in most aspects of life, requires both self-discipline and objectively imposed discipline from outside.”

“I feel an inner relationship which leads from the antique tot the Gothic, especially from the early ancient art, and from the Gothic to my own feeling for form. A great simplicity of form is something marvelous. As far back as I can remember, I have tried to put the simplicity of nature into the heads that I was painting or drawing. Now I have a real sense of being able to learn from the heads of ancient sculpture..”

“I am absolutely sure to be the most democratic man to ever become Prime Minister in Italy.”

“The books that help you most are those which make you think the most. The hardest way of learning is that of easy reading; but a great book that comes from a great thinker is a ship of thought, deep freighted with truth and beauty.”

“First of all, my father inspired me…he is a great social activist and women's rights activist…he spoke out. And he spoke for women's rights…that hard situation, he inspired me, because he spoke. And that's what I learned from him.”