“I dip my pen in the blackest ink, because I am not afraid of falling into my inkpot.”
“We must set up a strong present tense against all rumors of wrath, past and to come.”
“It is easy to live for others, everybody does. I call on you to live for yourselves.”
“Belief consists in accepting the affirmations of the soul; unbelief, in denying them.”
“Bad times have a scientific value. These are occasions a good learner would not miss.”
“It is one of the blessings of old friends that you can afford to be stupid with them.”
“We estimate the wisdom of nations by seeing what they did with their surplus capital.”
“No one has a prosperity so high and firm that two or three words can't dishearten it.”
“Great hearts steadily send forth the secret forces that incessantly draw great events.”
“Shall we judge a country by the majority, or by the minority? By the minority, surely.”
“The arts and inventions of each period are only its costume, and do not invigorate men.”
“There are always difficulties arising that tempt you to believe your critics are right.”
“In every man there is something wherein I may learn of him, and in that I am his pupil.”
“Let us treat the men and women well: treat them as if they were real: perhaps they are.”
“The reason why men do not obey us is because they see the mud at the bottom of our eye.”
“Cities give us collision. 'Tis said, London and New York take the nonsense out of a man.”
“If I cannot brag of knowing something, then I brag of not knowing it; at any rate, brag.”
“Nature magically suits a man to his fortunes, by making them the fruit of his character.”
“Character is higher than intellect. A great soul will be strong to live as well as think.”
“People seem not to see that their opinion of the world is also a confession of character.”
“Give no bounties: make equal laws: secure life and prosperity and you need not give alms.”
“We are as much informed of a writer's genius by what he selects as by what he originates.”
“Happiness is a perfume which you cannot pour on someone without getting some on yourself.”
“The wise know that foolish legislation is a rope of sand, which perishes in the twisting.”
“Those who live to the future must always appear selfish to those who live to the present.”
“Peace cannot be achieved through violence, it can only be attained through understanding.”
“It makes a great difference in the force of a sentence, whether a man be behind it or no.”
“We do not quite forgive a giver. The hand that feeds us is in some danger of being bitten.”
“The hues of the opal, the light of the diamond, are not to be seen if the eye is too near.”
“Self-reliance is its aversion. It loves not realities and creators, but names and customs.”