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

Shun no toil to make yourself remarkable by some talent or other; yet do not devote yourself to one branch exclusively. Strive to get clear notions about all. Give up no science entirely; for science is but one.

Better a witty fool than a foolish wit.

We are wiser than we know.

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

Start with what is right rather than what is acceptable.

An intellectual is a man who takes more words than necessary to tell more than he knows.

It is normal to give away a little of one’s life in order not to lose it all.

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

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

Look not at what is contrary to propriety; listen not to what is contrary to propriety; speak not what is contrary to propriety; make no movement which is contrary to propriety.

The first step, my son, which one makes in the world, is the one on which depends the rest of our days.

Truth is a good dog; but always beware of barking too close to the heels of an error, lest you get your brains kicked out.

Life being very short, and the quiet hours of it few, we ought to waste none of them in reading valueless books.

To do a great right do a little wrong.

Vices are sometimes only virtues carried to excess!

Whilst shame keeps its watch, virtue is not wholly extinguished in the heart; nor will moderation be utterly exiled from the minds of tyrants.

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.

No one was ever great without some portion of divine inspiration.

Necessity never made a good bargain.

If God treats you well by teaching you a disastrous lesson, you never forget it.

How prone to doubt, how cautious are the wise!

As a general rule, the most successful man in life is the man who has the best information.

There is, so I believe, in the essence of everything, something that we cannot call learning. There is, my friend, only a knowledge – that is everywhere.

To free a person from error is to give, and not to take away.

If we could give every individual the right amount of nourishment and exercise, not too little and not too much, we would have found the safest way to health.

Whoever undertakes to set himself up as a judge of Truth and Knowledge is shipwrecked by the laughter of the gods.

The best advice comes from people who don’t give advice.

The hidden harmony is better than the obvious.

We have two ears and one mouth so that we can listen twice as much as we speak.

We cannot be more sensitive to pleasure without being more sensitive to pain.

Next to knowing when to seize an opportunity, the most important thing in life is to know when to forego an advantage.

Poets utter great and wise things which they do not themselves understand.

A man watches his pear tree day after day, impatient for the ripening of the fruit. Let him attempt to force the process, and he may spoil both fruit and tree. But let him patiently wait, and the ripe pear at length falls into his lap.

Moral authority is never retained by any attempt to hold on to it. It comes without seeking and is retained without effort.

Anger dwells only in the bosom of fools.

The truth. It is a beautiful and terrible thing, and must therefore be treated with great caution.

No country can act wisely simultaneously in every part of the globe at every moment of time.

Commonsense is the realised sense of proportion.

There comes a time when the mind takes a higher plane of knowledge but can never prove how it got there.

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

The time comes upon every public man when it is best for him to keep his lips closed.

Peace is more important than all justice; and peace was not made for the sake of justice, but justice for the sake of peace.

While we should never give up our principles, we must also realize that we cannot maintain our principles unless we survive.

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.

If you wished to be loved, love.

The teacher is the one who gets the most out of the lessons, and the true teacher is the learner.

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

All this worldly wisdom was once the unamiable heresy of some wise man.

The art of being wise is the art of knowing what to overlook.

I prefer to be in a video than to play with it.

Moderation has been called a virtue to limit the ambition of great men, and to console undistinguished people for their want of fortune and their lack of merit.

I would rather sit on a pumpkin and have it all to myself, than be crowded on a velvet cushion.

Keep silence for the most part, and speak only when you must, and then briefly.

People who know little are usually great talkers, while men who know much say little.

Rightly defined philosophy is simply the love of wisdom.

When I look upon seamen, men of science and philosophers, man is the wisest of all beings; when I look upon priests and prophets nothing is as contemptible as man.

A life spent making mistakes is not only more honorable, but more useful than a life spent doing nothing.

Here is the rule to remember in the future, When anything tempts you to be bitter: not, ‚This is a misfortune‘ but ‚To bear this worthily is good fortune.‘

He that will not apply new remedies must expect new evils; for time is the greatest innovator.

If a nation expects to be ignorant and free, in a state of civilization, it expects what never was and never will be.