Man ceased to be an ape, vanquished the ape, on the day the first book was written.
In a balanced organization, working towards a common objective, there is success.
There are no better cosmetics than a severe temperance and purity, modesty and humility, a gracious temper and calmness of spirit; and there is no true beauty without the signatures of these graces in the very countenance.
Selfishness, when it is punished by the world, is mostly punished because it is connected with egotism.
Do not be deceived into thinking that how a man acts is the full picture.
A mixture of admiration and pity is one of the surest recipes for affection.
Every happiness is a hostage to fortune.
Reading is sometimes an ingenious device for avoiding thought.
Many a man has a kind of a kaleidoscope, where the bits of broken glass are his own merits and fortunes; and they fall into harmonious arrangements, and delight him, often most mischievously and to his ultimate detriment; but they are a present pleasure.
An official man is always an official man, and he has a wild belief in the value of reports.
There is one statesman of the present day, of whom I always say that he would have escaped making the blunders that he has made if he had only ridden more in buses.
We should lay up in our minds a store of goodly thoughts which will be a living treasure of knowledge always with us, and from which, at various times, and amidst all the shiftings of circumstances, we might be sure of drawing some comfort, guidance and sympathy.
A sceptical young man one day conversing with the celebrated Dr. Parr, observed that he would believe nothing which he could not understand. “Then, young man, your creed will be the shortest of any man’s I know.”
The apparent foolishness of others is but too frequently our own ignorance.
Simple ignorance has in its time been complimented by the names of most of the vices, and of all the virtues.
The man who could withstand, with his fellow-men in single line, a charge of cavalry may lose all command of himself on the occurrence of a fire in his own house, because of some homely reminiscence unknown to the observing bystander.
The most common-place people become highly imaginative when they are in a passion. Whole dramas of insult, injury, and wrong pass before their minds, – efforts of creative genius, for there is sometimes not a fact to go upon.
No man, or woman, was ever cured of love by discovering the falseness of his or her lover. The living together for three long, rainy days in the country has done more to dispel love than all the perfidies in love that have ever been committed.
Always win fools first. They talk much, and what they have once uttered they will stick to; whereas there is always time, up to the last moment, to bring before a wise man arguments that may entirely change his opinion.
The heroic example of other days is in great part the source of the courage of each generation; and men walk up composedly to the most perilous enterprises, beckoned onward by the shades of the brave that were.