He is a hard man who is only just, and a sad one who is only wise.

Who is the wisest man? He who neither knows or wishes for anything else than what happens.

Thomas Jefferson once said, ‚We should never judge a president by his age, only by his works.‘ And ever since he told me that, I stopped worrying.

Saints should always be judged guilty until they are proved innocent.

A weak man is just by accident. A strong but non-violent man is unjust by accident.

It is impossible to suffer without making someone pay for it; every complaint already contains revenge.

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

Against eternal injustice, man must assert justice, and to protest against the universe of grief, he must create happiness.

To practice five things under all circumstances constitutes perfect virtue; these five are gravity, generosity of soul, sincerity, earnestness, and kindness.

It’s not called quitting if you quit while you ahead. It’s about being aware and being strategic enough to know that you got to get out the pool at some point. You got to put your clothes back on and dry off.

How do you know what it’s like to be stupid if you’ve never been smart?

If a man walks in the woods for love of them half of each day, he is in danger of being regarded as a loafer. But if he spends his days as a speculator, shearing off those woods and making the earth bald before her time, he is deemed an industrious and enterprising citizen.

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

A man who views the world the same at fifty as he did at twenty has wasted thirty years of his life.

If a man will begin with certainties, he shall end in doubts, but if he will content to begin with doubts, he shall end in certainties.

A poem begins in delight and ends in wisdom.

To God everything is beautiful, good, and just; humans, however, think some things are unjust and others just.

Revenge is a kind of wild justice, which the more a man’s nature runs to, the more ought law to weed it out.

If we don’t plant the right things, we will reap the wrong things. It goes without saying. And you don’t have to be, you know, a brilliant biochemist and you don’t have to have an IQ of 150. Just common sense tells you to be kind, ninny, fool. Be kind.

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

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

That old law about ‚an eye for an eye‘ leaves everybody blind. The time is always right to do the right thing.

When I feel I’m doing too much, I do less if I can.

If you reveal your secrets to the wind, you should not blame the wind for revealing them to the trees.

I think some of my colleagues‘ spicier lines are distracting. They draw attention away from what the justice is trying to say.

Let no one be slow to seek wisdom when he is young nor weary in the search of it when he has grown old. For no age is too early or too late for the health of the soul.

Wisdom alone is the science of other sciences.

They must often change, who would be constant in happiness or wisdom.

The man of knowledge must be able not only to love his enemies but also to hate his friends.

Dreams are the touchstones of our character.

You live and learn. At any rate, you live.

Modesty is the color of virtue.

All difficult things have their origin in that which is easy, and great things in that which is small.

All the truth in the world adds up to one big lie.

Don’t ever take a fence down until you know why it was put up.

Sometimes the first duty of intelligent men is the restatement of the obvious.

Step with care and great tact, and remember that Life’s a Great Balancing Act.

I never took a day off in my twenties. Not one. And I’m still fanatical, but now I’m a little less fanatical.

The worst men often give the best advice.

It is better to risk saving a guilty man than to condemn an innocent one.

To know, is to know that you know nothing. That is the meaning of true knowledge.

Blessed is the man, who having nothing to say, abstains from giving wordy evidence of the fact.

For my own part, I wish the bald eagle had not been chosen the representative of our country. He is a bird of bad moral character. He does not get his living honestly.

The fox has many tricks. The hedgehog has but one. But that is the best of all.

Every step of life shows much caution is required.

At seventy-seven it is time to be in earnest.

By letting it go it all gets done. The world is won by those who let it go. But when you try and try. The world is beyond the winning.

Mediocrity can talk, but it is for genius to observe.

To keep your character intact you cannot stoop to filthy acts. It makes it easier to stoop the next time.

Our care should not be to have lived long as to have lived enough.

Any fool can make a rule, and any fool will mind it.

Everything isn’t political.

The sum of wisdom is that time is never lost that is devoted to work.

One isn’t necessarily born with courage, but one is born with potential. Without courage, we cannot practice any other virtue with consistency. We can’t be kind, true, merciful, generous, or honest.

The roots of education are bitter, but the fruit is sweet.

Moderation is a virtue only in those who are thought to have an alternative.

He who knows others is wise. He who knows himself is enlightened.

Persistence is to the character of man as carbon is to steel.

Observe constantly that all things take place by change, and accustom thyself to consider that the nature of the Universe loves nothing so much as to change the things which are, and to make new things like them.

Wisdom I know is social. She seeks her fellows. But Beauty is jealous, and illy bears the presence of a rival.

Generosity is giving more than you can, and pride is taking less than you need.