“One has very little influence upon one's children. Their characters are what they are and one can do nothing to change them.”

“One of the most troublesome things in life is that what you do or do not want has very little to do with what does or does not happen.”

“What kind of life have you lived little one? Where fair has anything to do with it? Life and death just are. Fair has nothing to do with it.”

“To defend painting: One has to believe in what one is doing, one has to commit oneself inwardly, in order to do painting. Once obsessed, one ultimately carries it to the point of believing that one might change human beings through painting. But if one lacks this passionate commitment, there is nothing left to do. Then it is best to leave it alone. For basically painting is pure idiocy.”

“I have always found them very reasonable --they don't change their minds when you aren't looking at them. Each one can always be relied upon to say the same thing.”

“We tend to forget at times that it is the little ones, the children, who do suffer the greatest hurt. If we cannot comprehend why certain sorrows are visited upon us, how on earth can they?”

“The truth is, no study is possible on the battle-field; one does there simply what one can in order to apply what one knows. Therefore, in order to do even a little, one has already to know a great deal and to know it well.”

“It requires strength of character to act upon one's ideas; it requires no less strength of character to resist being seduced by them.”

“What you're blaming yourself for is being who you are. And that's no one's fault and nothing you can change.”

“One can only influence the strong characters in life, not the weak; and it is the height of vanity to suppose that you can make an honest man of anyone.”