Be not afraid of greatness. Some are born great, some achieve greatness, and others have greatness thrust upon them.
—William Shakespeare
Nothing great will ever be achieved without great men, and men are great only if they are determined to be so.
—Charles de Gaulle
Great spirits have always encountered violent opposition from mediocre minds.
—Albert Einstein
Evening dress - Charles James 1944
Evening coat - Shannon Rodgers 1968
New York Times on Valentina
One evening, when a dazzled passer-by remarked that she must be dressed for the theater, she replied: ‘‘Madame, I am theater.’’
Evening Dress - Valentina 1935
Cocktail dress - Valentina 1938
These pains you feel are messengers. Listen to them.
—Rumi
Study me as much as you like, you will not know me, for I differ in a hundred ways from what you see me to be. Put yourself behind my eyes and see me as I see myself, for I have chosen to dwell in a place you cannot see.
—Rumi
I get angry about things, then go on and work.
—Toni Morrison
Her Energy
Freedom to Nina Simone
Your task is not to seek for love, but merely to seek and find all the barriers within yourself that you have built against it
—Rumi
How could she know that Ekwefi’s bitterness did not flow outwards towards others but inwards into her own soul?
—Things Fall Apart - Chinua Achebe
