Truth is such a precious article – let us all economize in its use.
A man’s first duty is to his own conscience and honor; the party and country come second to that, and never first.
Conscience, man’s moral medicine chest.
In all the ages, three-fourths of the support of the great charities has been conscience money.
That cat will write her autograph all over your leg if you let her.
The happy phrasing of a compliment is one of the rarest of human gifts, and the happy delivery of it another.
Never put off until tomorrow what you can avoid altogether. A clean desk is a sign of a cluttered desk drawer. All you need in this life is ignorance and confidence, and then success is sure.
Never run after you own hat – others will be delighted to do it; why spoil their fun?
When some men discharge an obligation, you can hear the report for miles around.
To succeed in the other trades, capacity must be shown; in the law, concealment of it will do.
Never miss an opportunity to shut up.
If one is honest there is no need to remember.
The darling mispronunciations of childhood! – dear me, there’s no music that can touch it; and how one grieves when it wastes away and dissolves into correctness, knowing it will never visit his bereaved ear again.
He had only one vanity; he thought he could give advice better than any other person.
The writing begins when you’ve finished. Only then do you know what you’re trying to say.
There is a great difference between feeding parties to wild beasts and stirring up their finer feelings in an inquisition. One is the system of degraded barbarians, the other of enlightened civilized people.
Is it, perhaps, possible that there are two kinds of Civilization-one for home consumption and one for the heathen market?
There is no salvation for us but to adopt Civilization and lift ourselves down to its level.
The peoples furthest from civilization are the ones where equality between man and woman are furthest apart-and we consider this one of the signs of savagery.
My idea of our civilization is that it is a shoddy, poor thing and full of cruelties, vanities, arrogances, meannesses and hypocrisies.