All passions exaggerate; and they are passions only because they do exaggerate.
He who wishes to be obeyed must know how to command.
For a long time I have not said what I believed, nor do I ever believe what I say, and if indeed sometimes I do happen to tell the truth, I hide it among so many lies that it is hard to find.
Rome remained free for four hundred years and Sparta eight hundred, although their citizens were armed all that time; but many other states that have been disarmed have lost their liberties in less than forty years.
The promise given was a necessity of the past: the word broken is a necessity of the present.
Men in general judge more from appearances than from reality. All men have eyes, but few have the gift of penetration.
How perilous it is to free a people who prefer slavery.
When it looks like I may live longer than five minutes I'll drop cigarettes like a hot potato.
It would be more in keeping with the intention of the noblest man in this world if our two Christian churches, instead of annoying Negroes with missions which they neither desire nor understand, would kindly, but in all seriousness, teach our European humanity that where parents are not healthy it is a deed pleasing to God to take pity on a poor little healthy orphan child and give him father and mother, than themselves to give birth to a sick child who will only bring unhappiness and suffering on himself and the rest of the world.
Why I've never been that fond of politics and only got into it recently kicking and screaming, because I don't think politicians are going to reverse the trajectory of this country. I think it's going to depend on the American people understanding what is fair and what makes their lives better.
I have my teachers who tell me what to do. I'm not quite old enough yet to be truly independent.