To the eyes of a miser, a guinea is more beautiful than the sun, and a bag worn with the use of money has more beautiful proportions than a vine filled with grapes.

Truth engenders hatred of truth. As soon as it appears, it is the enemy.

The basis of tragedy is man's helplessness against disease, war and death; the basis of comedy is man's helplessness against vanity (the vanity of love, greed, lust, power).

I'm primarily interested in examining human issues.

Some guys just slip under the radar.

I think if there was no violence in our world, there would be no violence in film. Violence is a part of human nature, and obviously it's a troublesome part of human nature. You always have...

I always disliked dogs, those protectors of cowards who lack the courage to fight an assailant themselves.

As individuals, people are inherently good. I have a somewhat more pessimistic view of people in groups. And I remain extremely concerned when I see what's happening in our country, which is in many...

There is something about sex that always brings out the funny in me. I think it's because we make such fools of ourselves over it.

I have such love for the point of obsession towards people and their minds, and I'm constantly trying to find beauty in things, and I think people are such unique and complex creatures.

Hate and mistrust are the children of blindness.

The whole of society is like a cabbage-stalk covered with caterpillars, and none is satisfied till it has crawled to the top.

Something that has always puzzled me all my life is why, when I am in special need of help, the good deed is usually done by somebody on whom I have no claim.

I can be a cruel person.

I have always used the world of make-believe with a certain desperation.

God did not need any assistance, but man did; bitterly he wanted it, and the giving of such assistance was the proper business of a woman.

Innocence most often is a good fortune and not a virtue.

I find it hard to settle into a normal, routine environment.

In that wide struggle which we call Progress, evil is always the aggressor and the vanquished, and it is right that this should be so, for without its onslaughts and depredations humanity might fall...

The lovers of romance can go elsewhere for satisfaction but where can the lovers of truth turn if not to history?

Human beings can always be relied upon to exert, with vigor, their God-given right to be stupid.

With each character in a movie, I'm looking for a human being. I'm looking for a person. And to me, I'm looking for a person that's full of strengths and weaknesses, a person that's full of successes...

Egotism is the anesthetic that dulls the pain of stupidity.

Quarreling over food and drink, having neither scruples nor shame, not knowing right from wrong, not trying to avoid death or injury, not fearful of greater strength or of greater numbers, greedily...

We are a naturally hierarchical species.

People ask what the advantages are of wearing a mask, and the first thing, of course, is the mystery - people don't know exactly what Kane is thinking.

He who cannot give anything away cannot feel anything either.

Heroes, whatever high ideas we may have of them, are mortal and not divine. We are all as God made us and many of us much worse.

When you cross the whitewash, you only think about the present.

When you have brothers, you learn to be fiercely competitive with someone you love so they won't kill you and you won't kill them.