Agnes Sligh Turnbull

Defeat in itself was part and parcel of the great gambling game of politics. A man who could not accept it and try again was not of the stuff of which leaders are made.

Do you know that the tendrils of graft and corruption have become mighty interlacing roots so that even men who would like to be honest are tripped and trapped by them?

If a diplomat says yes, he means perhaps. If he says perhaps he means no. And if he says no, he’s the hell of a diplomat.

Burning logs can carry on quite a conversation! … Have you ever heard apple wood talking? It’s the most loquacious of all. You really can’t get a word in edgeways.

There is still vitality under the winter snow, even though to the casual eye it seems to be dead.

There is only one thing about which I shall have no regrets when my life ends. I have savored to the full all the small, daily joys. The bright sunshine on the breakfast table; the smell of the air at dusk; the sound of the clock ticking; the light rains that start gently after midnight; the hour when the family come home; Sunday-evening tea before the fire! I have never missed one moment of beauty, not even taken it for granted. Spring, summer, autumn, or winter. I wish I had failed as little in other ways.

We are all dependent on one another, every soul of us on earth.

Your own safety is at stake when your neighbor’s house is in flames.

Truth is a naked and open daylight.

Peace has its victories, but it takes brave men and women to win them.

Then spare the rod and spoil the child.

Cultivate kindness today and always.

When a resolute young fellow steps up to the great bully, the world, and takes him boldly by the beard, he is often surprised to find it comes off in his hand, and that it was only tied on to scare away the timid adventurers.

The man who writes about himself and his own time is the only man who writes about all people and about all time.

Different taste in jokes is a great strain on the affections.

See, I think you live on earth a certain number of times until you finish what it is that you were meant to do here. And then you go on. I don’t think I’ll be back here. I think I’m done.

Not even the Devil can call a woman “Slut” if he is not able to make her fall in love.

I have never found a companion that was so companionable as solitude. We are for the most part more lonely when we go abroad among men than when we stay in our chambers. A man thinking or working is always alone, let him be where he will.

Hasty resolutions are of the nature of vows, and to be equally avoided

France has neither winter nor summer nor morals. Apart from these drawbacks it is a fine country.

Dictators ride to and fro upon tigers which they dare not dismount. And the tigers are getting hungry.