A vow is a snare for sin.
Nothing is more common than mutual dislike, where mutual approbation is particularly expected.
The next best thing to knowing something is knowing where to find it.
Whoever thinks of going to bed before twelve o clock is a scoundrel.
Sir, I have no objection to a man’s drinking wine, if he can do it in moderation. I found myself apt to go to excess in it, and therefore, after having been for some time without it, on account of illness, I thought it better not to return to it. Every man is to judge for himself, according to the effects which he experiences.
A mere literary man is a dull man; a man who is solely a man of business is a selfish man; but when literature and commerce are united, they make a respectable man.
Allow children to be happy in their own way, for what better way will they find?
Those who cannot change their minds cannot change anything.
Not only must we be good, but we must also be good for something.
I learned that courage was not the absence of fear, but the triumph over it.
Man is the only animal which esteems itself rich in proportion to the number and voracity of its parasites.
Aim for the moon. If you miss, you may hit a star.
Will not a tiny speck very close to our vision blot out the glory of the world, and leave only a margin by which we see the blot? I know no speck so troublesome as self.
Philosophy when superficially studied, excites doubt, when thoroughly explored, it dispels it.
Whether he knew it or not, the life he lived was his penance. Punishing himself, for what he believes are his sins. Consciously or subconsciously, he creates the world he lives in. Never believing that he is deserving happiness, deserving joy. His self-destructive nature, in his eyes, and his eyes only, is justified. Everyone is deserving absolution, but he needs to understand, that he is the only one able to forgive himself.
The only things one can admire at length are those one admires without knowing why.
Perhaps travel cannot prevent bigotry, but by demonstrating that all peoples cry, laugh, eat, worry, and die, it can introduce the idea that if we try and understand each other, we may even become friends.
Knowledge comes by eyes always open and working hands; and there is no knowledge that is not power.
Today is a king in disguise.
Slavery is an institution for converting men into monkeys.
Everyone has the right to be stupid on occasion, but Comrade Macdonald abuses the privilege.
