MANILA, Philippines?Luminaries are supposed to shine their light on the darkling world, hence the lumen in the word used to describe them. All too often, however, their stellar glow turns out to be brief and flickering, as their supposed brilliance frequently experiences battery fatigue.

Thus, instead of inspiring lesser mortals, some celebrities speak with foot in mouth, forked tongue?and even garbled grammar and sinful syntax.

How wonderful, therefore, to discover that, once in a charmed while, some luminaries? statements still hit the spot in terms of beauty, wit and insight?and, we?re all the richer for them:

Joan Baez: Action is the antidote to despair.

Woody Guthrie: Take it easy, but take it.

Absolute maximum

Yves Montand: I think a man can have two, maybe three affairs while he is married. But, three is the absolute maximum. After that, you?re cheating!

Marilyn Monroe: Husbands are good lovers when they?re betraying their wives.

Dylan Thomas: Oh, isn?t life a terrible thing? ?Thank God!

Erika Jong: Advice is what we ask for when we already know the answer, but wish we didn?t!

Orson Welles: I don?t say we all ought to misbehave?but, we ought to look as if we could.

Katharine Hepburn: Only the really plain people know about love. The very fascinating ones try so hard to create an impression that they soon exhaust their talents.

Fred Allen: When you get through all the phony tinsel of Hollywood, you find the genuine tinsel underneath.

Louis B. Mayer: Be smart?but, never show it.

André Gide: Art is a collaboration between God and the artist, and the less the artist does, the better.

Charlie Chaplin: Beauty is an omnipresence of death and loneliness, a smiling sadness that we discern in nature and all things, a mystic communion that the poet feels.

Josh Billings: Life consists not in holding good cards, but in playing those you hold well.

Frank Zappa: Without deviation, progress is not possible.

Heart trouble

Bob Hope: If you haven?t got any charity in your heart, you have the worst kind of heart trouble.

Erma Bombeck: Never lend your car to anyone whom you have given birth.

Louise Beal: Love thy neighbor as thyself?but, choose your neighbor.

Gracie Allen: When I was born, I was so surprised that I didn?t talk for a year and a half.

David Sarnoff: Competition brings out the best in products?and the worst in people.

W. Somerset Maugham: If you refuse to accept anything but the best, you very often get it.

Laurence Oliver: Use your weaknesses; aspire to the strength.

Robert Browning: A man?s reach should exceed his grasp. Or what?s heaven for?

Samuel Butler: All of the animals except man know that the principal business of life is to enjoy it.

Mae West: When choosing between two evils, I always like to try the one I?ve never tried before.

George Bernard Shaw: Lack of money is the root of all evil.

Rosalind Russell: Flops are a part of life?s menu?and I?ve never been a girl to miss out on any of the courses.

Truman Capote: Fame is only good for one thing?they will cash your check in a small town.

Ellen Degeneres: My grandmother started walking five miles a day when she turned 60. She?s 95 now, and we don?t know where the heck she is!

George Burns: Happiness is having a large, loving, caring and close-knit family?in another city.

Elbert Hubbard: A retentive memory may be a good thing, but the ability to forget is the true token of greatness.

Peter Ustinov: Love is an act of endless forgiveness.

Jim Boulton: Forget goals. Value the process.

Ingrid Bergman: Happiness lies in good health?and a bad memory.

Zsa Zsa Gabor: I never hated a man enough to give him his diamonds back.

Gene Fowler: People aren?t against you; they are merely for themselves.

James Thurber: Humor is emotional chaos remembered in emotional tranquility.

Norman Cousins: Laughter is inner jogging.

Bob Dylan: He who is not busy being born is busy dying.

Coco Chanel: In order to be irreplaceable, one must always be different.

Joyce Grenfell: There?s no such thing as the pursuit of happiness, but there is the discovery of joy.

Helen Hayes: The hardest years in life are those between 10 and 20.

Colette: What a wonderful life I?ve had! I only wish I?d realized it sooner.