The surest poison is time.
It is very easy in the world to live by the opinion of the world. It is very easy in solitude to be self-centered. But the finished man is he who in the midst of the crowd keeps with perfect sweetness the independence of solitude.
It is very hard to be simple enough to be good.
Great hearts steadily send forth the secret forces that incessantly draw great events.
Fear defeats more people than any other one thing in the world.
Courtesy Life be not so short but that there is always time for courtesy.
It makes a great difference in the force of a sentence, whether a man be behind it or no.
Remember always that you have not only the right to be an individual; you have an obligation to be one. You cannot make any useful contribution in life unless you do this.
There are goods so opposed that we cannot seize both, but, by too much prudence, may pass between them at too great a distance to reach either.
The good lawyer is not the man who has an eye to every side and angle of contingency, and qualifies all his qualifications, but who throws himself on your part so heartily, that he can get you out of a scrape.
I’ve never any pity for conceited people, because I think they carry their comfort about with them.
When a stupid man is doing something he is ashamed of, he always declares that it is his duty.
There is no more fatal blunderer than he who consumes the greater part of his life getting his living.
Wit and Humor – if any difference, it is in duration – lightning and electric light. Same material, apparently; but one is vivid, and can do damage – the other fools along and enjoys elaboration.
Out beyond ideas of wrongdoing and rightdoing there is a field. I’ll meet you there. When the soul lies down in that grass the world is too full to talk about.
Important encounters are planned by the souls long before the bodies see each other.
Beware when the great God lets loose a thinker on this planet.
You can tell a lot about a person by listening to the way they talk about someone they once loved.
To laugh often and much; to win the respect of intelligent people and the affection of children; to earn the appreciation of honest critics and endure the betrayal of false friends; to appreciate beauty; to find the best in others; to leave the world a bit better, whether by a healthy child, a garden patch or a redeemed social condition; to know even one life has breathed easier because you have lived. This is to have succeeded.
But lo! men have become the tools of their tools.
He that fails in his endeavors after wealth or power will not long retain either honesty or courage.
Both optimists and pessimists contribute to society. The optimist invents the airplane, the pessimist the parachute.
