If a good person does you wrong, act as though you had not noticed it. If we practice and eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth, soon the wholeworld will be blind and toothless.
Democracy does not race, it reaches the finish slowly but surely.
Merely to breathe freely does not mean to live.
As man is, so is his God. And thus is God oft strangely odd.
A state of affairs which leads to daily vexation is not the right state.
Begin by instructing yourself, then you will receive instruction from others.
One should not wish anyone disagreeable conditions of life; but for him who is involved in them by chance, they are touchstones of characters and of the most decisive value to man.
How can we learn self-knowledge? Never by taking thought but rather by action. Try to do your duty and you’ll soon discover what you’re like.
The most congenial social occasions are those ruled by cheerful deference of each for all.
Whatever is the object of a saint’s hope is the subject of his prayer.
We always hope, and in all things it is better to hope than to despair.
Yet here I stand poor fool what more, not one wit wiser than before.
Belief is not the beginning of knowledge – it is the end.
Sing it not in mournful numbers.
It is one of Heaven’s best gifts to hold such a dear creature in one’s arms.
It is sometimes essential for a husband and a wife to quarrel – they get to know each other better.
The effects of good music are not just because it’s new; on the contrary music strikes us more the more familiar we are with it.
Nature goes on her way, and all that to us seems an exception is really according to order.
There is no trifling with nature; it is always true, grave, and severe; it is always in the light, and the faults and errors fall to our share. It defies incompetency, but reveals its secrets to the competent, the truthful, and the pure.
A leaf that is destined to grow large is full of grooves and wrinkles at the start. Now if one has no patience and wants it smooth offhand like a willow leaf, there is trouble ahead.