Sophia Loren

"My philosophy is that its better to explore life and make mistakes than to play it safe and not to explore at all."

"A womans dress should be like a barbed-wire fence: serving its purpose without obstructing the view."

"I was born wise. Street-wise, people-wise, self-wise. This wisdom was my birthright. I was also born old. And illegitimate. But the two big advantages I had at birth were to have been born wise and to have been born in poverty."

"Being beautiful can never hurt, but you have to have more. You have to sparkle, you have to be fun, you have to make your brain work if you have one. Being a Hollywood beauty was a mixed blessing. Men are men, with all that testosterone, and when a pretty girl comes in front of them what can you expect? The fact that I became one is probably the loveliest, most glamorous and fortunate misunderstanding."

"After all these years, I am still involved in the process of self-discovery. Its better to explore life and make mistakes than to play it safe. Mistakes are part of the dues one pays for a full life."

"I was not intrigued with the accouterments of success and fame, the furs, jewels, expensive automobiles and mansions... I can assure you that these things were not on my mind when I sat spellbound in that Pozzuoli movie house. It was what these performers on the screen were doing, not what they received for doing it."

"Ive never tried to block out the memories of the past, even though some are painful. I dont understand people who hide from their past. Everything you live through helps to make you the person you are now."

"I was blessed with a sense of my own destiny. I have never sold myself short. I have never judged myself by other people’s standards. I have always expected a great deal of myself, and if I fail, I fail myself. So failure or reversal does not bring out resentment in me because I cannot blame others for any misfortune that befalls me."

"Beauty is how you feel inside, and it reflects in your eyes. It is not something physical."

"Nothing makes a woman more beautiful than the belief that she is beautiful."

"There is a fountain of youth: it is your mind, your talents, the creativity you bring to your life and the lives of the people you love. When you learn to tap this source, you will have truly defeated age."