One can hardly think too little of one's self. One can hardly think too much of one's soul.
The silly when deceived exclaim loudly; the fool complains; the honest man walks away and is silent.
The bravery founded upon the hope of recompense, upon the fear of punishment, upon the experience of success, upon rage, upon ignorance of dangers, is common bravery, and does not merit the name. True bravery proposes a just end, measures the dangers, and, if it is necessary, the affront, with coldness.
It would truly be a fine thing if men suffered themselves to be guided by reason, that they should acquiesce in the true remonstrances addressed to them by the writings of the learned and the advice of friends. But the greater part are so disposed that the words which enter by one ear do incontinently go out of the other, and begin again by following the custom. The best teacher one can have is necessity.
I don't know exactly what a black Chinese restaurant would be, but I would sure love to see one.
One form of religion perpetually gives way to another; if religion did not change it would be dead. . . . Each time the new ideas appear they are seen at first as a deadly foe threatening to make religion perish from the earth; but in the end there is a deeper insight and a better life with ancient follies and prejudices gone.
Now that doctors have stopped making house calls, lots of patients now have to die without their help.
The true magic of this broken world lay in the ability of the things it contained to vanish, to become so thoroughly lost, that they might never have existed in the first place.