If you must speak ill of another, do not speak it, write it in the sand near the water’s edge.

All our words from loose using have lost their edge.

The alchemists in their search for gold discovered many other things of greater value.

Life’s like a play: it’s not the length, but the excellence of the acting that matters.

The work an unknown good man has done is like a vein of water flowing hidden underground, secretly making the ground green.

Remind yourself that winning an argument or proving your point really gets you nowhere in the long run. Win through your actions, not your words.

Forgiveness is the fragrance that the violet sheds on the heel that has crushed it.

A broad margin of leisure is as beautiful in a man’s life as in a book. Haste makes waste, no less in life than in housekeeping. Keep the time, observe the hours of the universe, not of the cars.

The last suit that you wear, you don’t need any pockets.

To thine own self be true, and it must follow, as the night the day, thou canst not then be false to any man.

If Jesus were here today, he wouldn’t be riding around on a donkey. He’d be taking a plane, he’d be using the media.

That men do not learn very much from the lessons of history is the most important of all the lessons of history.

You might be the funniest guy in the world, but if you don’t have anything to talk about, people are eventually going to gravitate towards the guy that’s actually saying something.

I’ve always regretted that I never was able to talk openly with my parents, especially with my father. I’ve heard and read so many things about my family that I can no longer believe anything; every relative I question has a completely different story from the last.

He that composes himself is wiser than he that composes a book.

A thorough knowledge of the Bible is worth more than a college education.

It is the sign of a great mind to dislike greatness, and to prefer things in measure to things in excess.

I could talk all day, T stands for talking, T stands for tender, T stands for things that don’t even rhyme with T.

All I have seen teaches me to trust the creator for all I have not seen.

Quarrel? Nonsense; we have not quarreled. If one is not to get into a rage sometimes, what is the good of being friends?

Three o’clock is always too late or too early for anything you want to do.

There are folks who now know black families – like the Johnsons on ‚Black-ish‘ or the folks on ‚Modern Family.‘ They become part of who you are. You share their pains. You understand their fears. They make you laugh, and they change how you see the world.

You know, my Grandpop Finnegan used to have an expression: he used to say, ‚Joey, the guy in Olyphant’s out of work, it’s an economic slowdown. When your brother-in-law’s out of work, it’s a recession. When you’re out of work, it’s a depression.‘

The deed is everything, the glory is naught.

If I feel good about my parenting, I have no interest in judging other people’s choices. If I feel good about my body, I don’t go around making fun of other people’s weight or appearance. We’re hard on each other because we’re using each other as a launching pad out of our own perceived deficiency.

The happiest conversation is that of which nothing is distinctly remembered, but a general effect of pleasing impression.

Questions are never indiscreet, answers sometimes are.

Never find fault with the absent.

Men feel that cruelty to the poor is a kind of cruelty to animals. They never feel that it is an injustice to equals; nay it is treachery to comrades.

The person who doesn’t scatter the morning dew will not comb gray hairs.

Encouragement to others is something everyone can give. Somebody needs what you have to give. It may not be your money; it may be your time. It may be your listening ear. It may be your arms to encourage. It may be your smile to uplift. Who knows?

‚Tis not enough to help the feeble up, but to support them after.

The best way to resolve any problem in the human world is for all sides to sit down and talk.

Repartee is something we think of twenty-four hours too late.

Nature gives you the face you have at twenty; it is up to you to merit the face you have at fifty.

This must be Thursday. I never could get the hang of Thursdays.

Who hears me, who understands me, becomes mine, a possession for all time.

Great spirits have always encountered violent opposition from mediocre minds.

Truth is ever to be found in simplicity, and not in the multiplicity and confusion of things.

Remember, if you ever need a helping hand, it’s at the end of your arm, as you get older, remember you have another hand: The first is to help yourself, the second is to help others.

Part of what confuses people in times of upheaval is that you’re getting so many different points of view and directions and so and so, how to do this and do that. And a lot of it is written in a language that honestly most people cannot understand.

There is nothing, Sir, too little for so little a creature as man. It is by studying little things that we attain the great art of having as little misery and as much happiness as possible.

The object of opening the mind, as of opening the mouth, is to shut it again on something solid.

Never marry someone in hope that they’ll change later.

He who is cruel to animals becomes hard also in his dealings with men. We can judge the heart of a man by his treatment of animals.

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

How far that little candle throws its beams! So shines a good deed in a naughty world.

My books are like water; those of the great geniuses are wine. (Fortunately) everybody drinks water.

Self-pity is our worst enemy and if we yield to it, we can never do anything wise in this world.

If you talk to a man in a language he understands, that goes to his head. If you talk to him in his language, that goes to his heart.

You pity the fool because you don’t want to beat up a fool! You know, pity is between sorry and mercy. See, if you pity him, you know, you won’t have to beat him up. So that’s why I say fools, you gotta give another chance because they don’t know no better. That’s why I pity them!

Seek first to understand, then to be understood.

A woman will doubt everything you say except it be compliments to herself.

Short words are best and the old words when short are best of all.

Animals, in their generation, are wiser than the sons of men; but their wisdom is confined to a few particulars, and lies in a very narrow compass.

Being politically correct means saying what’s polite rather than what’s accurate. I like to be accurate.

Kindness in words creates confidence. Kindness in thinking creates profoundness. Kindness in giving creates love.

It used to be the case, like you’d switch jobs, and then maybe you wouldn’t keep in touch with all the people that you knew from that old job, just because it was too hard. But one of the things that Facebook does is it makes it really easy to just stay in touch with all these people.

Rational discussion is useful only when there is a significant base of shared assumptions.

There is no such thing as Something for nothing.

A quarrel is quickly settled when deserted by one party; there is no battle unless there be two.