Always do sober what you said you’d do drunk. That will teach you to keep your mouth shut.

A man may be a fool and not know it, but not if he is married.

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.

Have no fear of perfection – you’ll never reach it.

The empty vessel makes the loudest sound.

Sincere words are not fine; fine words are not sincere.

When you know a thing, to hold that you know it, and when you do not know a thing, to allow that you do not know it – this is knowledge.

As a blind man has no idea of colors, so have we no idea of the manner by which the all-wise God perceives and understands all things.

I have lived long enough both in years and in accomplishments.

Both old and young alike ought to seek wisdom: the former in order that, as age comes over him, he may be young in good things because of the grace of what has been, and the latter in order that, while he is young, he may at the same time be old, because he has no fear of the things which are to come.

We ought to fly away from earth to heaven as quickly as we can; and to fly away is to become like God, as far as this is possible; and to become like him is to become holy, just, and wise.

Time discovers truth.

I repeat… that all power is a trust; that we are accountable for its exercise; that from the people and for the people all springs, and all must exist.

We have two ears and one tongue so that we would listen more and talk less.

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

To accuse others for one’s own misfortunes is a sign of want of education. To accuse oneself shows that one’s education has begun. To accuse neither oneself nor others shows that one’s education is complete.

Don’t part with your illusions. When they are gone, you may still exist, but you have ceased to live.

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

Do something everyday for no other reason than you would rather not do it, so that when the hour of dire need draws nigh, it may find you not unnerved and untrained to stand the test.

If a man writes a book, let him set down only what he knows. I have guesses enough of my own.

Education is the period during which you are being instructed by somebody you do not know, about something you do not want to know.

It’s so clear that you have to cherish everyone. I think that’s what I get from these older black women, that every soul is to be cherished, that every flower Is to bloom.

Any fool can criticize, condemn and complain – and most fools do.

I’m not somebody that just wants to hold up a white flag and say, ‚Let’s all just get along.‘ I think people that do horrible things should be held accountable.

Stay hungry, stay foolish.

Truth has no special time of its own. Its hour is now – always.

This is the highest wisdom that I own; freedom and life are earned by those alone who conquer them each day anew.

There is much pleasure to be gained from useless knowledge.

All that I know about my life, it seems, I have learned in books.

There is nothing makes a man suspect much, more than to know little.

The educated differ from the uneducated as much as the living from the dead.

I never could have done what I have done without the habits of punctuality, order, and diligence, without the determination to concentrate myself on one subject at a time.

The more extensive a man’s knowledge of what has been done, the greater will be his power of knowing what to do.

Books that you carry to the fire, and hold readily in your hand, are most useful after all.

In South Korea, they believe that when you turn 60, you’ve become a baby again and the rest of your life should be totally about joy and happiness, and people should leave you alone, and I just think that that’s the height of intelligence.

That which is not good for the bee-hive cannot be good for the bees.

I’d rather learn from one bird how to sing than teach 10,000 stars how not to dance.

The age of a woman doesn’t mean a thing. The best tunes are played on the oldest fiddles.

The President is always abused. If he isn’t, he isn’t doing anything.

I always pass on good advice. It is the only thing to do with it. It is never of any use to oneself.

Never pray for justice, because you might get some.

The more I see the less I know for sure.

Nothing is so wretched or foolish as to anticipate misfortunes. What madness is it to be expecting evil before it comes.

Let’s just be smart this time. I’m looking for smart.

Men do not learn much from the lessons of history and that is the most important of all the lessons of history.

Words may show a man’s wit but actions his meaning.

Play not with paradoxes. That caustic which you handle in order to scorch others may happen to sear your own fingers and make them dead to the quality of things.

As I approve of a youth that has something of the old man in him, so I am no less pleased with an old man that has something of the youth. He that follows this rule may be old in body, but can never be so in mind.

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.

It isn’t what we don’t know that gives us trouble, it’s what we know that ain’t so.

You can always tell an old soldier by the inside of his holsters and cartridge boxes. The young ones carry pistols and cartridges; the old ones, grub.

When good Americans die they go to Paris.

At twenty years of age the will reigns; at thirty, the wit; and at forty, the judgment.

The foolish man conceives the idea of ‚self.‘ The wise man sees there is no ground on which to build the idea of ‚self;‘ thus, he has a right conception of the world and well concludes that all compounds amassed by sorrow will be dissolved again, but the truth will remain.

The buck stops here!

I could not do what I do, and teach a class, and never miss a deadline, never be late for anything if I was a lush, OK? I would really love to read a piece that said, ‚He is not a lush.‘ That would be fabulous, it would be a first, I could show it to people and say, ‚Look!‘

The price of greatness is responsibility.

If knowledge can create problems, it is not through ignorance that we can solve them.

To the wise, life is a problem; to the fool, a solution.

Wisdom allows nothing to be good that will not be so forever; no man to be happy but he that needs no other happiness than what he has within himself; no man to be great or powerful that is not master of himself.

One science only will one genius fit; so vast is art, so narrow human wit.