Present opportunities are not to be neglected; they rarely visit us twice.
A little evil is often necessary for obtaining a great good.
I have a simple philosophy: Fill what’s empty. Empty what’s full. Scratch where it itches. Alice Roosevelt Longworth Life is a shipwreck but we must not forget to sing in the lifeboats.
Changing a habit is hard work. But it’s harder to find work that would be more fulfilling.
The greatest consolation in life is to say what one thinks.
Such then is the human condition, that to wish greatness for one’s country is to wish harm to one’s neighbors.
Even in those cities which seem to enjoy the blessings of peace, and where the arts florish, the inhabitants are devoured by envy, cares and anxieties, which are greater plagues than any expirienced in a town when it is under siege.
I am the best-natured creature in the world, and yet I have already killed three, and of these three two were priests.
God has punished the knave, and the devil has drowned the rest.
When his highness sends a ship to Egypt, does he trouble his head whether the mice on board are at their ease or not?
One always begins with the simple, then comes the complex, and by superior enlightenment one often reverts in the end to the simple. Such is the course of human intelligence.
All is but illusion and disaster.
Very learned women are to be found, in the same manner as female warriors; but they are seldom or ever inventors.
Governments need to have both shepherds and butchers.
The world embarrasses me, and I cannot dream that this watch exists and has no watchmaker.
To the wicked, everything serves as pretext.
The discovery of what is true and the practice of that which is good are the two most important aims of philosophy.
No opinion is worth burning your neighbor for.
What is history? The lie that everyone agrees on...
May God defend me from my friends: I can defend myself from my enemies.