The beauty of the sunbeam lies partly in the fact that God does not keep it; he gives it away to us all.
I have come, Sire, to complain of one of your subjects who has been so audacious as to kick me in the belly.
I was a queen, and you took away my crown; a wife, and you killed my husband; a mother, and you deprived me of my children. My blood alone remains: take it, but do not make me suffer long.
If the people have no bread, let them eat cake.
it is the nature of human beings, and especially of the mediocre ones, to wish to change everything. They desire it all the more because they know popularity will accrue rather to those who disturb than to those who maintain order.
There is nothing new except what has been forgotten.
Marie Antoinette. Her last words were,"Pardon me sir. I did not mean to do it,"to a man whose foot she stepped on before she was executed by the guillotine
Inspired teachers. . . cannot be ordered by the gross from the factory. They must be discovered one by one, and brought home from the woods and swamps like orchids. They must be placed in a conservatory, not in a carpenter shop; and they must be honored and trusted.
There is too much disagreement for disagreement's sake. In a time of persistent challenges that still call into question our most sacred aspirations as a country, we cannot afford shallow callous divisiveness in our public debate.
The virtue of justice consists in moderation, as regulated by wisdom.
Poets are band leaders who have failed.