Nothing astonishes men so much as common sense and plain dealing.

Never contract friendship with a man that is not better than thyself.

A wise man will make more opportunities than he finds.

As far as men go, it is not what they are that interests me, but what they can become.

If you would take, you must first give, this is the beginning of intelligence.

Young men soon give, and soon forget, affronts; old age is slow in both.

Stay hungry, stay foolish.

Youth cannot know how age thinks and feels. But old men are guilty if they forget what it was to be young.

The reason men oppose progress is not that they hate progress, but that they love inertia.

America is a friend to the people of Iraq. Our demands are directed only at the regime that enslaves them and threatens us. When these demands are met, the first and greatest benefit will come to Iraqi men, women and children.

I have an expression I use as I’ve gone around the world through my career: ‚You never tell another man or woman what’s in their interest. They know their interest better than you know their interest.‘

Something unpleasant is coming when men are anxious to tell the truth.

Not when truth is dirty, but when it is shallow, does the enlightened man dislike to wade into its waters.

It is plain indeed that in spite of later estrangement Hobbits are relatives of ours: far nearer to us than Elves, or even than Dwarves. Of old they spoke the languages of Men, after their own fashion, and liked and disliked much the same things as Men did. But what exactly our relationship is can no longer be discovered.

If men can develop weapons that are so terrifying as to make the thought of global war include almost a sentence for suicide, you would think that man’s intelligence and his comprehension… would include also his ability to find a peaceful solution.

Always the beautiful answer who asks a more beautiful question.

A man is the whole encyclopedia of facts.

Experience never errs; it is only your judgments that err by promising themselves effects such as are not caused by your experiments.

He that hath knowledge spareth his words.

It’s my old girl that advises. She has the head. But I never own to it before her. Discipline must be maintained.

Experience is the child of thought, and thought is the child of action.

He who hath many friends hath none.

Our best thoughts come from others.

Men cannot not live by exchanging articles, but producing them. They live by work not trade.

No excellent soul is exempt from a mixture of madness.

There is more treasure in books than in all the pirate’s loot on Treasure Island.

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

For everything you have missed, you have gained something else, and for everything you gain, you lose something else.

In three words I can sum up everything I’ve learned about life: it goes on.

As you get older, time speeds up but life slows down.

The invariable mark of wisdom is to see the miraculous in the common.

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.‘

It is most unwise for people in love to marry.

Purposes, plans, and achievements of men may all disappear like yon cloud upon the mountain’s summit; but, like the mountain itself, the things which are of God shall stand fast for ever and ever.

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

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

Expecting is the greatest impediment to living. In anticipation of tomorrow, it loses today.

In words, as fashions, the same rule will hold; Alike fantastic, if too new, or old: Be not the first by whom the new are tried, Nor yet the last to lay the old aside.

By the time you’ve reached your sixties, you do know that one day you will die, and knowing that is at least the beginning of wisdom.

A poem begins in delight and ends in wisdom.

The people respect and believe in men who fulfill their duty.

Experience which was once claimed by the aged is now claimed exclusively by the young.

Men are swayed more by fear than by reverence.

The higher the sun ariseth, the less shadow doth he cast; even so the greater is the goodness, the less doth it covet praise; yet cannot avoid its rewards in honours.

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

As long as you know men are like children, you know everything!

All that is gold does not glitter, not all those who wander are lost; the old that is strong does not wither, deep roots are not reached by the frost.

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

Ignorant men raise questions that wise men answered a thousand years ago.

Live to learn, and you will really learn to live.

The instruction we find in books is like fire. We fetch it from our neighbours, kindle it at home, communicate it to others, and it becomes the property of all.

God has cared for these trees, saved them from drought, disease, avalanches, and a thousand tempests and floods. But he cannot save them from fools.

We are anthill men upon an anthill world.

He who is to be a good ruler must have first been ruled.

Wars may be fought with weapons, but they are won by men. It is the spirit of men who follow and of the man who leads that gains the victory.

We are braver and wiser because they existed, those strong women and strong men… We are who we are because they were who they were. It’s wise to know where you come from, who called your name.

There is no darkness but ignorance.

Society is always taken by surprise at any new example of common sense.

Wisdom alone is the science of other sciences.

He who has so little knowledge of human nature as to seek happiness by changing anything but his own disposition will waste his life in fruitless efforts.

A man can take a little bourbon without getting drunk, but if you hold his mouth open and pour in a quart, he’s going to get sick on it.