Life is so short. Grudges are a waste of time. Laugh when you can, apologise when you should, and trust God with what you cannot change.
Sir, I did not count your glasses of wine, why should you number up my cups of tea?
The true measure of a man is how he treats someone who can do him absolutely no good.
Curiosity is one of the most permanent and certain characteristics of a vigorous intellect.
He who has so little knowledge of human nature as to seek happiness by changing anything but his own disposition will waste his life in fruitless efforts.
Our aspirations are our possibilities.
Exert your talents, and distinguish yourself, and don't think of retiring from the world, until the world will be sorry that you retire.
Imperfection is underrated. Perfection is overrated.
The Constitution contains no 'dignity' Clause, and even if it did, the government would be incapable of bestowing dignity. . . . Slaves did not lose their dignity (any more than they lost their humanity) because the government allowed them to be enslaved. Those held in internment camps did not lose their dignity because the government confined them. And those denied governmental benefits certainly do not lose their dignity because the government denies them those benefits.
If I were required to guess off-hand, and without collusion with higher minds, what is the bottom cause of the amazing material and intellectual advancement of the last fifty years, I should guess that it was the modern-born and previously non-existent disposition on the part of men to believe that a new idea can have value.
We know intellectually that money can't buy happiness yet we spend and go into debt as if it does.