A man watches his pear-tree day after day, impatient for the ripening of the fruit. Let him attempt to force the process, and he may spoil both fruit and tree. But let him patiently wait, and the ripe pear at length falls into his lap.
There is wisdom in the selection of wisdom.
Freedom of speech and freedom of action are meaningless without freedom to think. And there is no freedom of thought without doubt.
The mere abhorrence of vice is not a virtue at all.
Authors are magpies, echoing each other's words and seizing avidly on anything that glitters.
Legislators who are of even average intelligence stand out among their colleagues. . . . A cultured college president has become as much a rarity as a literate newspaper publisher. A financier interested in economics is as exceptional as a labor leader interested in the labor movement. For the most part our leaders are merely following out in front; they [only] marshal us in the way that we are going.
The civilized man has a moral obligation to be skeptical, to demand the credentials of all statements that claim to be facts.
Our wounds ultimately give us wisdom. Our stumbling blocks inevitably become our stepping stones. And our setbacks lead us to our strengths
When people fall in love, they burst into flames.
Because nobody but a reader ever became a writer.
Hell's afloat in lover's tears.