Actions are visible, though motives are secret.

Character is expressed through our behavior patterns, or natural responses to things.

I usually make up my mind about a man in ten seconds, and I very rarely change it.

Neither a man nor a crowd nor a nation can be trusted to act humanely or to think sanely under the influence of a great fear.

Insanity in individuals is something rare – but in groups, parties, nations and epochs, it is the rule.

Men are what their mothers made them.

Virtue is relative to the actions and ages of each of us in all that we do.

A superior man is modest in his speech, but exceeds in his actions.

People have different emotional levels. Especially when you’re young.

Expectations are a form of first-class truth: If people believe it, it’s true.

It takes 20 years to build a reputation and five minutes to ruin it. If you think about that, you’ll do things differently.

SEALs are human beings. We may all have the same haircuts, but we aren’t robots. Some SEALs are great people. Some are not great people. Some have done unspeakably terrible things. You’re dealing with different people, different dreams, different desires.

You must reward the kind of behavior that you want.

Look at the means which a man employs, consider his motives, observe his pleasures. A man simply cannot conceal himself!

Actions are the seed of fate deeds grow into destiny.

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.

For how many things, which for our own sake we should never do, do we perform for the sake of our friends.

Great acts are made up of small deeds.

Memory is deceptive because it is colored by today’s events.

Some animals are cunning and evil-disposed, as the fox; others, as the dog, are fierce, friendly, and fawning. Some are gentle and easily tamed, as the elephant; some are susceptible of shame, and watchful, as the goose. Some are jealous and fond of ornament, as the peacock.

A gentleman is one who never hurts anyone’s feelings unintentionally.

A gentleman is never rude except on purpose – I can honestly be nasty sober, believe you me.

Men are nearly always willing to believe what they wish.

Guilt: the gift that keeps on giving.

A friend who is far away is sometimes much nearer than one who is at hand. Is not the mountain far more awe-inspiring and more clearly visible to one passing through the valley than to those who inhabit the mountain?

People’s minds are changed through observation and not through argument.

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.

With every word we utter, with every action we take, we know our kids are watching us. We as parents are their most important role models.

When new turns of behavior cease to appear in the life of the individual, its behavior ceases to be intelligent.

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.

Every woman is supposed to have the same set of motives, or else to be a monster.

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.

As a rule, men worry more about what they can’t see than about what they can.

I didn’t just invent saying offensive things.

All emotion is involuntary when genuine.

The ego is nothing other than the focus of conscious attention.

Death and genitals are things that frighten people, and when people are frightened, they develop means of concealment and aggression. It is common sense.

The very word ‚secrecy‘ is repugnant in a free and open society; and we are as a people inherently and historically opposed to secret societies, to secret oaths, and to secret proceedings.

Our deeds determine us, as much as we determine our deeds.

Who is richer? The man who is seen, but cannot see? Or the man who is not being seen, but can see?

Where the mind goes, the man follows.

I can analyze people’s intentions. Immediately. That’s just a warning. To everyone.

The thing we fear we bring to pass.

You are not only responsible for what you say, but also for what you do not say.

Shame may restrain what law does not prohibit.

A man without ethics is a wild beast loosed upon this world.

There is only one way… to get anybody to do anything. And that is by making the other person want to do it.

The savage in man is never quite eradicated.

People use irony as a defense mechanism.

Writers are always writing about infidelity. It’s so dramatic. The wickedness of it, the secrecy, the complications, the finding that you thought you were one person but you’re also this other person. The innocent life and the guilty life. My God, it’s just full of stuff for a writer. I doubt it will ever go out of fashion.

There are four ways, and only four ways, in which we have contact with the world. We are evaluated and classified by these four contacts: what we do, how we look, what we say, and how we say it.

Politeness is to human nature what warmth is to wax.

Telling us to obey instinct is like telling us to obey ‚people.‘ People say different things: so do instincts. Our instincts are at war… Each instinct, if you listen to it, will claim to be gratified at the expense of the rest.

People love conspiracy theories.

If you’re treated a certain way you become a certain kind of person. If certain things are described to you as being real they’re real for you whether they’re real or not.

I have nowhere claimed nor even implied that unbelief is a guarantee of good conduct or even an indicator of it.

It’s human nature to blame someone else for your shortcomings or upsets.

I believe it is universally understood and acknowledged that all men will ever act correctly, unless they have a motive to do otherwise.

I’m mischievous, but I’m calculated.

Men are moved by two levers only: fear and self interest.