The wise ones fashioned speech with their thought, sifting it as grain is sifted through a sieve.

No one ever doubts that I mean what I say. The problem is I sometimes say all that I mean.

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.

If you ever go to a music session, you’ll notice that the musicians can sit down and start playing right away, and everyone knows what to do. Of course they’re reading it, but the conductor can tweak little things, and you can take that back to directing motion pictures.

Music is well said to be the speech of angels.

Language is the dress of thought.

No one means all he says, and yet very few say all they mean, for words are slippery and thought is viscous.

The issues a president faces are not black and white, and cannot be boiled down into 140 characters. Because when you have the nuclear codes at your fingertips and the military at your command, you can’t make snap decisions. You can’t have a thin skin or the tendency to lash out.

I think that there is never an indispensable leader, you know? I think that there is a time with dignity that one needs to leave.

Thought is the wind and knowledge the sail.

Why a four-year-old child could understand this report. Run out and find me a four-year-old child. I can’t make head nor tail out of it.

People are very reluctant to talk about their private lives but then you go to the internet and they’re much more open.

He who knows nothing is closer to the truth than he whose mind is filled with falsehoods and errors.

To be clear: we have fights and problems like any other couple.

At eighteen our convictions are hills from which we look; at forty-five they are caves in which we hide.

A good leader can engage in a debate frankly and thoroughly, knowing that at the end he and the other side must be closer, and thus emerge stronger. You don’t have that idea when you are arrogant, superficial, and uninformed.

Having nothing, nothing can he lose.

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

A physician is not angry at the intemperance of a mad patient, nor does he take it ill to be railed at by a man in fever. Just so should a wise man treat all mankind, as a physician does his patient, and look upon them only as sick and extravagant.

In our time political speech and writing are largely the defense of the indefensible.

No one should be ashamed to admit he is wrong, which is but saying, in other words, that he is wiser today than he was yesterday.

We want everybody to act like adults, quit playing games, realize that it’s not just my way or the highway.

There are two things that are more difficult than making an after-dinner speech: climbing a wall which is leaning toward you and kissing a girl who is leaning away from you.

One of my direct subordinates, one of my guys that worked for me, he would call me up or pull me aside with some major problem, some issue that was going on. And he’d say, ‚Boss, we’ve got this, and that, and the other thing.‘ And I’d look at him and I’d say, ‚Good.‘

The two powers which in my opinion constitute a wise man are those of bearing and forbearing.

Does wisdom perhaps appear on the earth as a raven which is inspired by the smell of carrion?

There is a time to take counsel of your fears, and there is a time to never listen to any fear.

A saint is tolerant and is attentive to the pleadings of other human beings, not only to spoken messages but to unspoken messages as well.

Women always excel men in that sort of wisdom which comes from experience. To be a woman is in itself a terrible experience.

My mother used to tell me man gives the award, God gives the reward. I don’t need another plaque.

I’m the most recognized and loved man that ever lived cuz there weren’t no satellites when Jesus and Moses were around, so people far away in the villages didn’t know about them.

Proverbs are always platitudes until you have personally experienced the truth of them.

The wise man does at once what the fool does finally.

For, if a good speaker, never so eloquent, does not see into the fact, and is not speaking the truth of that – is there a more horrid kind of object in creation?

SPAM is taking e-mail, which is a wonderful tool, and exploiting the idea that it’s very inexpensive to send mail.

Speaking English is like tongue-twist for me. I can speak each word perfect, but then you have to string them together like, ‚Blah, blah, blah.‘ That’s when I get crazy.

Silence is the most perfect expression of scorn.

The secret of being a bore… is to tell everything.

The American people are entitled to see the president and to hear his views directly, and not to see him only through the press.

It is the nature of every person to error, but only the fool perseveres in error.

I never learn anything talking. I only learn things when I ask questions.

You can be a little ungrammatical if you come from the right part of the country.

Necessity never made a good bargain.

The major advances in speed of communication and ability to interact took place more than a century ago. The shift from sailing ships to telegraph was far more radical than that from telephone to email!

And all who told it added something new, and all who heard it, made enlargements too.

To know yet to think that one does not know is best; Not to know yet to think that one knows will lead to difficulty.

Concentrate your energies, your thoughts and your capital. The wise man puts all his eggs in one basket and watches the basket.

There are only two kinds of people who are really fascinating – people who know absolutely everything, and people who know absolutely nothing.

There are always three speeches, for every one you actually gave. The one you practiced, the one you gave, and the one you wish you gave.

There is only a finger’s difference between a wise man and a fool.

I particularly like Twitter, because it’s short and can be very funny and informative. It’s a little bit like having your own radio program.

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.

We cannot always oblige; but we can always speak obligingly.

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

Surely wisdom will come as we listen to learn from children, parents, partners, neighbors, Church leaders, and the Lord.

Any man is liable to err, only a fool persists in error.

These technologies can make life easier, can let us touch people we might not otherwise. You may have a child with a birth defect and be able to get in touch with other parents and support groups, get medical information, the latest experimental drugs. These things can profoundly influence life. I’m not downplaying that.

Some animals utter a loud cry. Some are silent, and others have a voice, which in some cases may be expressed by a word; in others, it cannot. There are also noisy animals and silent animals, musical and unmusical kinds, but they are mostly noisy about the breeding season.

Forgive me my nonsense, as I also forgive the nonsense of those that think they talk sense.

Access to the Vedas is the greatest privilege this century may claim over all previous centuries.

We call first truths those we discover after all the others.