I had rather be first in a village than second at Rome.
When you are courting a nice girl an hour seems like a second. When you sit on a red-hot cinder a second seems like an hour. That's relativity.
We are all mortal until the first kiss and the second glass of wine.
Life is hardly more than a fraction of a second. Such a little time to prepare oneself for eternity!
What's terrible is to pretend that second-rate is first-rate. To pretend that you don't need love when you do; or you like your work when you know quite well you're capable of better.
History repeats itself, first as tragedy, second as farce.
Speech is our second possession, after the soul-and perhaps we have no other possession in this world.
Habit is a second nature which prevents us from knowing the first, of which it has neither the cruelties nor the enchantments.
You might lose your spontaneity and, instead of composing first-rate Gershwin, end up with second rate Ravel.
Music, I feel, must be emotional first and intellectual second.
All truth passes through three stages. First, it is ridiculed. Second, it is violently opposed. Third, it is accepted as being self-evident.