Anger is a brief lunacy.
I strive to be brief, and I become obscure.
How does it happen, Maecenas, that no one is content with that lot of which he has chosen or which chance has thrown his way, but praises those who follow a different course?
Whatever advice you give, be short.
Those that are little, little things suit.
I hate the irreverent rabble and keep them far from me.
It is your concern when your neighbor’s wall is on fire.
I look up at the universe and ask, What are you trying to teach me here?’ I know I won’t hear a reply, but asking the question, makes me begin looking for the answer.
Our moments of inspiration are not lost though we have no particular poem to show for them; for those experiences have left an indelible impression, and we are ever and anon reminded of them.
When I was praised I lost my time, for instantly I turned around to look at the work I had thought slightly of, and that day I made nothing new.
Murder in the murderer is no such ruinous thought as poets and romancers will have it; it does not unsettle him, or fright him from his ordinary notice of trifles; it is an act quite easy to be contemplated.
Liberty means responsibility. That is why most men dread it.
Remember, no human condition is ever permanent. Then you will not be overjoyed in good fortune nor too scornful in misfortune.
Adversity has ever been considered the state in which a man most easily becomes acquainted with himself.
Out of the unconscious lips of babes and sucklings are we satirized.
All schools, all colleges, have two great functions: to confer, and to conceal, valuable knowledge. The theological knowledge which they conceal cannot justly be regarded as less valuable than that which they reveal. That is, when a man is buying a basket of strawberries it can profit him to know that the bottom half of it is rotten.
Stay with me,’ he said, until the sun goes out, the seas are parched, and the wind draws its last breath.
I must walk toward Oregon, and not toward Europe. And that way the nation is moving, and I may say that mankind progress from east to west. We go eastward to realize history and study the works of art and literature, retracing the steps of the race; we go westward as into the future, with a spirit of enterprise and adventure.
A great man stands on God. A small man on a great man.
The root of all superstition is that men observe when a thing hits, but not when it misses.
Guilt, regret, resentment, sadness and all forms of nonforgiveness are caused by too much past and not enough presence.
Ignorance… is a painless evil; so, I should think, is dirt, considering the merry faces that go along with it.
