Tear thyself from delay.
Only a stomach that rarely feels hungry scorns common things.
You may drive out nature with a pitchfork, yet she’ll be constantly running back.
He who is upright in his way of life and free from sin.
The lofty pine is oftenest shaken by the winds; High towers fall with a heavier crash; And the lightning strikes the highest mountain.
What fugitive from his country can also escape from himself.
Nothing’s beautiful from every point of view.
The golden rule is that there are no golden rules.
When people do not respect us we are sharply offended; yet deep down in his private heart no man much respects himself.
Its proper use is to amuse the idle, and relax the studious, and dilute the full meals of those who cannot use exercise, and will not use abstinence.
Meek young men grow up in libraries, believing it their duty to accept the views which Cicero, which Locke, which Bacon, have given, forgetful that Cicero, Locke, and Bacon were only young men in libraries, when they wrote these books. Hence, instead of Man Thinking, we have the book-worm.
I think I can say, and say with pride, that we have some legislatures that bring higher prices than any in the world.
If you don’t like something, change it. If you can’t change it, change your attitude. Don’t complain.
As if you could kill time without injuring eternity.
That which we call character is a reserved force which acts directly by presence, and without means. It is conceived of as a certain undemonstrable force, a familiar or genius, by whose impulses the man is guided, but whose counsels he cannot impart.
A man cannot speak but he judges himself. With his will or against his will he draws his portrait to the eye of his companions by every word. Every opinion reacts on him who utters it. It is a threadball thrown at a mark, but the other end remains on the thrower.
To affect the quality of the day, that is the highest of arts. Every man is tasked to make his life, even in its details, worthy of the contemplation of his most elevated and critical hour.
The best reformers the world has ever seen are those who commence on themselves.
He who can, does. He who cannot, teaches.
A man’s wife has more power over him than the state has.
There is a sort of jealousy which needs very little fire; it is hardly a passion, but a blight bred in the cloudy, damp despondency of uneasy egoism.
He is rich who is content with the least; for contentment is the wealth of nature.
