I sit on a man’s back choking him and making him carry me, and yet assure myself and others that i am sorry for him and wish to lighten his load by all means possible….except by getting off his back.
I will never do this, says one, yet does it: I am resolved to do this, says another; but flags upon second Thoughts: Or does it, tho’ awkwardly, for his Word’s sake: As if it were worse to break his Word, than to do amiss in keeping it.
What you don’t do can be a destructive force.
Certainly the best works, and of greatest merit for the public, have proceeded from the unmarried, or childless men.
The happiest part of a man’s life is what he passes lying awake in bed in the morning.
You cannot spend money in luxury without doing good to the poor. Nay, you do more good to them by spending it in luxury, than by giving it; for by spending it in luxury, you make them exert industry, whereas by giving it, you keep them idle.
Nature makes us poor only when we want necessaries, but custom gives the name of poverty to the want of superfluities.
The great danger of conversion in all ages has been that when the religion of the high mind is offered to the lower mind, the lower mind, feeling its fascination without understanding it, and being incapable of rising to it, drags it down to its level by degrading it.
Half the vices which the world condemns most loudly have seeds of good in them and require moderated use rather than total abstinence.
The Chinese said of themselves several thousand years ago: China is a sea that salts all the waters that flow into it. Theres another Chinese saying about their country which is much more modernit dates only from the fourth century. This is the saying: The tail of China is large and will not be wagged. I like that one. The British democracy approves the principles of movable party heads and unwaggable national tails. It is due to the working of these important forces that I have the honour to be addressing you at this moment.
It is better that some should be unhappy rather than that none should be happy, which would be the case in a general state of equality.
It is better to suffer wrong than to do it, and happier to be sometimes cheated than not to trust.
Wherever there is power there is age.
The jealous are troublesome to others, but a torment to themselves.
All problems are finally scientific problems.
Universities are of course hostile to geniuses, which, seeing and using ways of their own, discredit the routine: as churches and monasteries persecute youthful saints.
Switzerland is simply a large, lumpy, solid rock with a thin skin of grass stretched over it.
The more you know, the less you need.
Let a man find himself, in distinction from others, on top of two wheels with a chain – at least in a poor country like Russia – and his vanity begins to swell out like his tires. In America it takes an automobile to produce this effect.
Let us consider that we are all partially insane. It will explain us to each other; it will unriddle many riddles; it will make clear and simple many things which are involved in haunting and harassing difficulties and obscurities now.
I’m not denyin’ the women are foolish. God Almighty made ’em to match the men.
