Riches are for spending.
It is the true office of history to represent the events themselves, together with the counsels, and to leave the observations and conclusions thereupon to the liberty and faculty of every man’s judgment.
Men of age object too much, consult too long, adventure too little, repent too soon, and seldom drive business home to the full period, but content themselves with a mediocrity of success.
There is no excellent beauty that hath not some strangeness in the proportion.
The mould of a man’s fortune is in his own hands.
Nature, to be commanded, must be obeyed.
Friendship increases in visiting friends, but in visiting them seldom.
A lot of power and bravery is practice. And some of that is taking the risk to try and be at the table. And then when you’re at the table, taking that first risk to open your mouth and risk being rejected.
The lofty pine is oftenest shaken by the winds; High towers fall with a heavier crash; And the lightning strikes the highest mountain.
I am always sorry when any language is lost, because languages are the pedigrees of nations.
If it matters, it will hurt like knives or wrap and lift you in the most immeasurable joy. Or both. One thing is certain, you will feel intensely alive.
In the best, the friendliest and simplest relations flattery or praise is necessary, just as grease is necessary to keep wheels turning.
The longer we dwell on our misfortunes, the greater is their power to harm us.
One of the disadvantages of wine is that it makes a man mistake words for thoughts.
Stand upright, speak thy thoughts, declare The truth thou hast, that all may share; Be bold, proclaim it everywhere: They only live who dare.
Concentration is the secret of strength in politics, in war, in trade, in short, in all the management of human affairs.
Tell me who your heroes are and I’ll tell you who you’ll turn out to be.
No mistake is more common and more fatuous than appealing to logic in cases which are beyond her jurisdiction.
That which builds is better than that which is built.
I heartily accept the motto,That government is best which governs least; and I should like to see it acted up to more rapidly and systematically. Carried out, it finally amounts to this, which I also believe,That government is best which governs not at all; and when men are prepared for it, that will be the kind of government which they will have. Government is at best but an expedient; but most governments are usually, and all governments are sometimes, inexpedient.
If we open a quarrel between the past and the present, we shall find we have lost the future.
Nothing does Reason more Right, than the Coolness of those that offer it: for Truth often suffers more by the heat of its defenders than from the arguments of its opposers.
