A wise ruler ought never to keep faith when by doing so it would be against his interests.

There is a tide in the affairs of men, Which taken at the flood, leads on to fortune. Omitted, all the voyage of their life is bound in shallows and in miseries. On such a full sea are we now afloat. And we must take the current when it serves, or lose our ventures.

Entire ignorance is not so terrible or extreme an evil, and is far from being the greatest of all; too much cleverness and too much learning, accompanied with ill bringing-up, are far more fatal.

Knowledge can be communicated, but not wisdom. One can find it, live it, be fortified by it, do wonders through it, but one cannot communicate and teach it.

Honesty is the first chapter in the book of wisdom.

The most successful politician is he who says what the people are thinking most often in the loudest voice.

Better a little which is well done, than a great deal imperfectly.

One can survive everything, nowadays, except death, and live down everything except a good reputation.

I wouldn’t ever say if you’re having tough times then there must be something wrong with you or your attitude. Life’s a fight. It’s a good fight of faith. I encourage people to stay up, stay hopeful, stay faith-filled.

Our God is a forgiving God.

I’ve been studying the Bible for a long time. I remember that after the first five years or so of diligently studying the Word, I didn’t feel like I had made any progress. There were a lot of things in my life that were out of order, and I didn’t feel like I was getting anywhere.

Age doesn’t bother me. So many of my heroes were older guys. It’s the lack of years left that weighs far heavier on me than the age that I am.

By most accounts, Aristide is the most popular figure in Haiti.

Great minds are related to the brief span of time during which they live as great buildings are to a little square in which they stand: you cannot see them in all their magnitude because you are standing too close to them.

Obviously I faced the possibility of not returning when first I considered going. Once faced and settled there really wasn’t any good reason to refer to it.

The punishment which the wise suffer who refuse to take part in the government, is to live under the government of worse men.

Blessed are the people whose leaders can look destiny in the eye without flinching but also without attempting to play God.

Experience teaches only the teachable.

He that takes truth for his guide, and duty for his end, may safely trust to God’s providence to lead him aright.

Knowledge which is divorced from justice, may be called cunning rather than wisdom.

In my opinion eight years as president is enough and sometimes too much for any man to serve in that capacity.

No woman in my time will be prime minister or chancellor or foreign secretary – not the top jobs. Anyway, I wouldn’t want to be prime minister; you have to give yourself 100 percent.

What one fool can understand, another can.

I have considered voting Conservative because I am so against the Labour party.

You can tell the tree by the fruit it bears. You see it through what the organization is delivering as far as a concrete program. If the tree’s fruit sours or grows brackish, then the time has come to chop it down – bury it and walk over it and plant new seeds.

We should take care not to make the intellect our goal; it has, of course, powerful muscles, but no personality.

Jump out the window if you are the object of passion. Flee it if you feel it. Passion goes, boredom remains.

Between falsehood and useless truth there is little difference. As gold which he cannot spend will make no man rich, so knowledge which cannot apply will make no man wise.

The true measure of the value of any business leader and manager is performance.

So near is falsehood to truth that a wise man would do well not to trust himself on the narrow edge.

Motives reveal why we do what we do, which is actually more important to God than what we’re doing.

A great city, whose image dwells in the memory of man, is the type of some great idea. Rome represents conquest; Faith hovers over the towers of Jerusalem; and Athens embodies the pre-eminent quality of the antique world, Art.

I am a Christian and a Democrat, that’s all.

He who loves practice without theory is like the sailor who boards ship without a rudder and compass and never knows where he may cast.

If you always do what interests you, at least one person is pleased.

It’s lack of faith that makes people afraid of meeting challenges, and I believed in myself.

All who call on God in true faith, earnestly from the heart, will certainly be heard, and will receive what they have asked and desired.

The people of the world genuinely want peace. Some day the leaders of the world are going to have to give in and give it to them.

It is more difficult to rule yourself than to rule a city.

Great indebtedness does not make men grateful, but vengeful; and if a little charity is not forgotten, it turns into a gnawing worm.

If I had only one sermon to preach it would be a sermon against pride.

There’s nothing hippie about my picture of Christ. The Gospels paint a picture of a very demanding, sometimes divisive love, but love it is.

Tricks and treachery are the practice of fools, that don’t have brains enough to be honest.

Speak softly and carry a big stick; you will go far.

Life isn’t fair, but God is.

The executive has no right, in any case, to decide the question, whether there is or is not cause for declaring war.

One reason I don’t want to play in England again is because we don’t have any personalities.

Everything in excess is opposed to nature.

Many times, we miss out on God’s best because we give up too soon. We don’t realize how close we are to victory.

You shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you mad.

For God so loved the World that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life.

Every time I try to retire, or even think of retiring from acting, my agent comes up with a script.

There is nothing in this world that can compare with the Christian fellowship; nothing that can satisfy but Christ.

I think that is a better thing than thanksgiving: thanks-living. How is this to be done? By a general cheerfulness of manner, by an obedience to the command of Him by whose mercy we live, by a perpetual, constant delighting of ourselves in the Lord, and by a submission of our desires to His will.

Those who do not know how to live must make a merit of dying.

God has his plans and his reasons. Sometimes we are supposed to go through things so that we learn lessons.

You can have religion with spirituality. You can also have religion without spirituality.

The Tao that can be told is not the eternal Tao; the name that can be named is not the eternal name. The Nameless is the origin of Heaven and Earth; the Named is the mother of all things.

I’m going to let God be the judge of who goes to heaven and hell.

Heat not a furnace for your foe so hot that it do singe yourself.

If you call yourself a leader, then you have to be decisive. If you’re decisive, then you have the chance to be a leader. These are two sides to the same coin.