Agnes Sligh Turnbull

If a diplomat says yes, he means perhaps. If he says perhaps he means no. And if he says no, he’s the hell of a diplomat.

A country-bred man can always learn to get on with city people, but a town-bred fellah never gets the real hang of the country. You can put city polish on a man, but by golly, it seems you can’t ever rub it off him.

When the desire ain’t on me I don’t need help. When it is on me I don’t want any. See? Like the old fellah that never mended his roof. Said on a wet day he couldn’t do it and on a dry day it was as good as anybody’s.

I think we foreshorten our own viewpoint if we consider any state of mind, or society, or government as final. Growth and change! We can’t get away from them.

There is still vitality under the winter snow, even though to the casual eye it seems to be dead.

Burning logs can carry on quite a conversation! … Have you ever heard apple wood talking? It’s the most loquacious of all. You really can’t get a word in edgeways.

We judge of man’s wisdom by his hope.

Always acknowledge a fault. This will throw those in authority off their guard and give you an opportunity to commit more.

Sorrow makes us children again.

The self divides into ten billion distinct illuminating spirits. Distinguish these without falling into names and classifications.

Yesterday I was clever, so I wanted the world. Today I am wise, so I am changing myself.

You always do what you want to do. This is true with every act. You may say that you had to do something, or that you were forced to, but actually, whatever you do, you do by choice. Only you have the power to choose for yourself.

Nuptial love makes mankind; friendly love perfects it; but wanton love corrupts and debases it.

He that fails in his endeavors after wealth or power will not long retain either honesty or courage.

Love and you shall be loved. All love is mathematically just, as much as the two sides of an algebraic equation.

France has neither winter nor summer nor morals. Apart from these drawbacks it is a fine country.

Nothing is more hopeless than a scheme of merriment.

Explore thyself. Herein are demanded the eye and the nerve.

With memory set smarting like a reopened wound, a man’s past is not simply a dead history, an outworn preparation of the present: it is not a repented error shaken loose from the life: it is a still quivering part of himself, bringing shudders and bitter flavors and the tinglings of a merited shame.

The function of vice is to keep virtue within reasonable bounds.

Amidst all the clutter, beyond all the obstacles, aside from all the static, are the goals set. Put your head down, do the best job possible, let the flak pass, and work towards those goals.