When a man says he wants to work, what he means is that he wants wages.
Man, considered not merely as an organized being, but as a rational agent and a member of society, is perhaps the most wonderfully contrived, and to us the most interesting specimen of Divine wisdom that we have any knowledge of.
Habits are formed, not at one stroke, but gradually and insensibly; so that, unless vigilant care be employed, a great change may come over the character without our being conscious of any.
Better too much form than too little.
Good manners are a part of good morals.
As one may bring himself to believe almost anything he is inclined to believe, it makes all the difference whether we begin or end with the inquiry, ‘What is truth?’
We may print, but not stereotype, our opinions.
Honesty is the best policy; but he who is governed by that maxim is not an honest man.
He who is not aware of his ignorance will be only misled by his knowledge.
The best security against revolution is in constant correction of abuses and the introduction of needed improvements. It is the neglect of timely repair that makes rebuilding necessary.
The word of knowledge, strictly employed, implies three things: truth, proof, and conviction.
Happiness is no laughing matter.
It is an awful, an appalling thought, that we may be, this moment and every moment, in the presence of malignant spirits.
Not in books only, nor yet in oral discourse, but often also in words there are boundless stores of moral and historic truth, and no less of passion and imagination laid up, from which lessons of infinite worth may be derived.
Never argue at the dinner table, for the one who is not hungry gets the best of the argument.
To follow imperfect, uncertain, or corrupted traditions, in order to avoid erring in our own judgment, is but to exchange one danger for another.
Men are like sheep, of which a flock is more easily driven than a single one.
A certain class of novels may with propriety be called fables.
Nothing but the right can ever be expedient, since that can never be true expediency which would sacrifice a great good to a less.
The more secure we feel against our liability to any error to which, in fact, we are liable, the greater must be our danger of falling into it.