Credit leads a man into temptation. Cash down is the only thing that will deliver him from evil.
Really, it was difficult to determine which I had most reason to fear – dogs, alligators or men!
There have been hours in my unhappy life, many of them, when the contemplation of death as the end of earthly sorrow – of the grave as a resting place for the tired and worn out body – has been pleasant to dwell upon.
My back is thick with scars for protesting my freedom.
There are few sights more pleasant to the eye, than a wide cotton field when it is in the bloom. It presents an appearance of purity, like an immaculate expanse of light, new-fallen snow.
I can speak of slavery only so far as it came under my own observation – only so far as I have known and experienced it in my own person.
I could not comprehend the justice of that law, or that religion, which upholds or recognizes the principle of slavery;.
Suffice it to say, during the whole long day I came not to the conclusion, even once, that the southern slave, fed, clothed, whipped and protected by his master, is happier than the free colored citizen of the North. To that conclusion I have never since arrived.
What difference is there in the color of the soul?
Is everything right because the law allows it?
You don’t think in depression that you’ve put on a gray veil and are seeing the world through the haze of a bad mood. You think that the veil has been taken away, the veil of happiness, and that now you’re seeing truly.
Fold the worst events of your life into a narrative of triumph.
We cannot bear a pointless torment, but we can endure great pain if we believe that it’s purposeful.
The absence of marriages will result in all kinds of financial burdens that gay people wouldn’t face if they could get married.
The opposite of depression is not happiness, but vitality, and it was vitality that seemed to seep away from me in that moment.
A sense of humor is the best indicator that you will recover; it is often the best indicator that people will love you. Sustain that and you have hope.
I believe that words are strong, that they can overwhelm what we fear when fear seems more awful than life is good.
I think an awful lot of the diplomatic problems that exist in the world come from people assuming that their society is the one with a purchase on truth.
I can see the beauty of glass objects fully at the moment when they slip from my hand.
It is nearly impossible to hate anyone whose story you know.