To hold a pen is to be at war.
In every author let us distinguish the man from his works.
It is said that the present is pregnant with the future.
Ice-cream is exquisite – what a pity it isn’t illegal.
Think for yourselves and let others enjoy the privilege to do so, too.
Everything’s fine today, that is our illusion.
Dare to think for yourself.
There isn’t a single human characteristic that can be safely labeled as American.
Nature has given women so much power that the law has very wisely given them little.
The wisdom of nations lies in their proverbs, which are brief and pithy. Collect and learn them; they are notable measures of directions for human life; you have much in little; they save time in speaking; and upon occasion may be the fullest and safest answer.
Courage is the first of human qualities because it is the quality which guarantees all others.
The poets aim is either to profit or to please, or to blend in one the delightful and the useful. Whatever the lesson you would convey, be brief, that your hearers may catch quickly what is said and faithfully retain it. Every superfluous word is spilled from the too-full memory.
Worldly faces never look so worldly as at a funeral. They have the same effect of grating incongruity as the sound of a coarse voice breaking the solemn silence of night.
He that will not apply new remedies, must expect new evils: for Time is the greatest innovator: and if Time, of course, alter things to the worse, and wisdom and counsel shall not alter them to the better, what shall be the end?.
Judge a man by his questions rather than his answers.
Do you know that the tendrils of graft and corruption have become mighty interlacing roots so that even men who would like to be honest are tripped and trapped by them?
A decent provision for the poor is the true test of civilization.
Beware of false knowledge; it is more dangerous than ignorance.
What loneliness is more lonely than distrust?
A pessimist is a man who thinks everybody is as nasty as himself.
A man finds room in the few square inches of the face for the traits of all his ancestors; for the expression of all his history, and his wants.
We shall see but little way if we require to understand what we see. How few things can a man measure with the tape of his understanding! How many greater things might he be seeing in the meanwhile!
