I’m mischievous, but I’m calculated.

I have known a vast quantity of nonsense talked about bad men not looking you in the face. Don’t trust that conventional idea. Dishonesty will stare honesty out of countenance any day in the week, if there is anything to be got by it.

I’ve found men are less likely to let petty things annoy them.

Morality is simply the attitude we adopt towards people whom we personally dislike.

Life is about conduct and how we conduct ourselves. But two wrongs never make a right.

Ritual is another word for fear, manifested in a different way.

Courage is rightly esteemed the first of human qualities… because it is the quality which guarantees all others.

So much of what we do every single day is the result of habits that we have formed over time.

There is a courtesy of the heart; it is allied to love. From its springs the purest courtesy in the outward behavior.

It is the failing of youth not to be able to restrain its own violence.

Somewhere it is written that parents who are critical of other people’s children and publicly admit they can do better are asking for it.

When a stupid man is doing something he is ashamed of, he always declares that it is his duty.

Mere bashfulness without merit is awkwardness.

Dogs never bite me – just humans.

Well, I’ll put it this way: you can certainly say belief in God makes people behave worse. That can be proved beyond a doubt.

I’m crepuscular.

Suspicion is not less an enemy to virtue than to happiness; he that is already corrupt is naturally suspicious, and he that becomes suspicious will quickly be corrupt.

First and foremost, we need to be the adults we want our children to be. We should watch our own gossiping and anger. We should model the kindness we want to see.

Some men have a necessity to be mean, as if they were exercising a faculty which they had to partially neglect since early childhood.

Everybody, to some extent, manipulates. Even children learn to cry when they want something. There are all kinds of subtle things we do to get others to follow our lead, not bother us, and so on.

Fine manners need the support of fine manners in others.

Sheep, like people, are ungovernable when hungry.

The business schools reward difficult complex behavior more than simple behavior, but simple behavior is more effective.

Wisdom does not show itself so much in precept as in life – in firmness of mind and a mastery of appetite. It teaches us to do as well as to talk; and to make our words and actions all of a color.

In individuals, insanity is rare; but in groups, parties, nations and epochs, it is the rule.

There seems to be some perverse human characteristic that likes to make easy things difficult.

I like a man who grins when he fights.

Although modesty is natural to man, it is not natural to children. Modesty only begins with the knowledge of evil.

When dealing with the insane, the best method is to pretend to be sane.

Not always actions show the man; we find who does a kindness is not therefore kind.

I’m very much a creature of habit.

I’m not the kind of cat that’s going to cut off an ear if I can’t do something.

Humanity I love you because when you’re hard up you pawn your intelligence to buy a drink.

Action is character.

Success or failure depends more upon attitude than upon capacity successful men act as though they have accomplished or are enjoying something. Soon it becomes a reality. Act, look, feel successful, conduct yourself accordingly, and you will be amazed at the positive results.

The greatest service that can be offered to children who show personality traits or inclinations that might not be understood by the adults around them is to allow them to express their own unique humanity.

All wars are follies, very expensive and very mischievous ones.

It is perfectly possible to live a very moral life without a belief in God, and I think it’s perfectly possible to live a life peppered with ill-doing and believe in God.

Of course, like anybody I repeat myself endlessly, but I don’t know that I’m doing it, usually.

Reproach is shame, blame, disgrace, disapproval and a disrespectful attitude toward yourself. When you’re under reproach, your behavior shows it.

T stands for being nice. T stands for manners. T stands for being polite.

I act on impulse and I go with my instincts.

An Englishman thinks he is moral when he is only uncomfortable.

If you are a parent, you have probably already realized that your children are always watching what you do. And just as children watch their parents and emulate their behavior, so do employees who are watching their bosses.

Extremely religious, legalistic people have a criticism or judgment about everyone and everything. They just have a way of bringing people down with what they say.

People who eat with their mouth open should be punched in the face.

Children have never been very good at listening to their elders, but they have never failed to imitate them.

I was a class clown. At 12, I was definitely clowning. I was making all the jokes. But I was smart, so the teachers didn’t know what to do with me.

There’s certainly a side of me that isn’t completely… sane. Or completely ‚even‘ all the time. We all have our dark sides.

The sensitivity of men to small matters, and their indifference to great ones, indicates a strange inversion.

Our judgments when we are pleased and friendly are not the same as when we are pained and hostile.

A creep is someone who claims he’s one thing but he’s actually another.

One of the great attractions of patriotism – it fulfills our worst wishes. In the person of our nation we are able, vicariously, to bully and cheat. Bully and cheat, what’s more, with a feeling that we are profoundly virtuous.

I have always had a talent for irritating women since I was fourteen.

It is with trifles, and when he is off guard, that a man best reveals his character.

Politeness is to human nature what warmth is to wax.

I am a tough guy.

It is in the treatment of trifles that a person shows what they are.

The superior man does not, even for the space of a single meal, act contrary to virtue. In moments of haste, he cleaves to it. In seasons of danger, he cleaves to it.

Why does your mind conform? Have you ever asked? Are you aware that you are conforming to a pattern? It doesn’t matter what that pattern is, whether you have established a pattern for yourself or it has been established for you.

I was mischievous. I wasn’t bad. I stole food so we could eat. My mother didn’t know. I used to tell her some man gave me $10 to sweep out the yard. I was like Robin Hood. I took from the rich and gave to the poor. Me.