Revolutions go not backward.
The virtues of society are vices of the saint. The terror of reform is the discovery that we must cast away our virtues, or what we have always esteemed such, into the same pit that has consumed our grosser vices.
These times of ours are serious and full of calamity, but all times are essentially alike. As soon as there is life there is danger.
The less government we have the better.
Courtesy Life be not so short but that there is always time for courtesy.
A man makes inferiors his superiors by heat; self-control is the rule.
Concentration is the secret of strength in politics, in war, in trade, in short, in all the management of human affairs.
When men come to like a sea-life, they are not fit to live on land.
Our passions do not live apart in locked chambers but dress in their small wardrobe of notions, bring their provisions to a common table and mess together, feeding out of the common store according to their appetite.
Everybody talks about the weather, but nobody does anything about it.
The chief glory of every people arises from its authors.
In order to fully realize how bad a popular play can be, it is necessary to see it twice.
Failure is success if we learn from it.
Do Good with what thou hast, or it will do thee no good.
A heart well prepared for adversity in bad times hopes, and in good times fears for a change in fortune.
Virtue consists, not in abstaining from vice, but in not desiring it.
Human beliefs, like all other natural growths, elude the barrier of systems.
Since you get more joy out of giving joy to others, you should put a good deal of thought into the happiness that you are able to give.
Cities force growth and make people talkative and entertaining, but they also make them artificial.
A man seldom thinks with more earnestness of anything than he does of his dinner.
Bitterness is like cancer. It eats upon the host. But anger is like fire. It burns it all clean.
Fearful of missing anything, he read on, filled with this anticipation which was half terror, of coming upon something which would touch him, not simply touch him but lift him and carry him away.
