To prefer evil to good is not in human nature; and when a man is compelled to choose one of two evils, no one will choose the greater when he might have the less.

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

Hegel was right when he said that we learn from history that man can never learn anything from history.

You see, I am trying in all my stories to get the feeling of the actual life across – not to just depict life – or criticize it – but to actually make it alive. So that when you have read something by me, you actually experience the thing. You can’t do this without putting in the bad and the ugly as well as what is beautiful.

You should read history and look at ostracism, persecution, martyrdom, and that kind of thing. They always happen to the best men, you know.

The most difficult thing is the decision to act, the rest is merely tenacity. The fears are paper tigers. You can do anything you decide to do. You can act to change and control your life; and the procedure, the process is its own reward.

I am growing handsome very fast indeed! I expect I shall be the belle of Amherst when I reach my 17th year. I don’t doubt that I shall have perfect crowds of admirers at that age. Then how I shall delight to make them await my bidding, and with what delight shall I witness their suspense while I make my final decision.

We will burn that bridge when we come to it.

The precepts of the law are these: to live honestly, to injure no one, and to give everyone else his due.

Hatred, which could destroy so much, never failed to destroy the man who hated, and this was an immutable law.

I had to make a choice at one point in my life, of missing films or missing my children. It was a very easy decision to make because I missed my children so very much.

I base a lot of decisions on my gut, and going with an independent label was a good one.

He who has a task to perform must know how to take sides, or he is quite unworthy of it.

I would never do a commercial if I thought it was offensive to anyone.

Never think that war, no matter how necessary, nor how justified, is not a crime.

There is no satisfaction in hanging a man who does not object to it.

I believe that every human mind feels pleasure in doing good to another.

Forgiveness is not a feeling – it’s a decision we make because we want to do what’s right before God. It’s a quality decision that won’t be easy and it may take time to get through the process, depending on the severity of the offense.

If you must break the law, do it to seize power: in all other cases observe it.

The government’s job is good governance for everybody. My government will make policies; if you fit into it, come on board, or stay where you are. My job is not to spoon-feed anyone.

Better than worshiping gods is obedience to the laws of righteousness.

I have always considered it as treason against the great republic of human nature, to make any man’s virtues the means of deceiving him.

I don’t care whether you’re driving a hybrid or an SUV. If you’re headed for a cliff, you have to change direction. That’s what the American people called for in November, and that’s what we intend to deliver.

Of course, when I say that human nature is gentleness, it is not 100 percent so. Every human being has that nature, but there are many people acting against their nature, being false.

I never make conscious decisions.

One of the most tragic things I know about human nature is that all of us tend to put off living. We are all dreaming of some magical rose garden over the horizon instead of enjoying the roses that are blooming outside our windows today.

I have considered voting Conservative because I am so against the Labour party.

Morality is a private and costly luxury.

Next to doing the right thing, the most important thing is to let people know you are doing the right thing.

Jump out the window if you are the object of passion. Flee it if you feel it. Passion goes, boredom remains.

I have always believed in evolving a consensus before taking any major decision.

Truly, I would not hang a dog by my will, much more a man who hath any honesty in him.

I actually started off majoring in computer science, but I knew right away I wasn’t going to stay with it. It was because I had this one professor who was the loneliest, saddest man I’ve ever known. He was a programmer, and I knew that I didn’t want to do whatever he did. So after that, I switched to Communications.

What can I know? What ought I to do? What can I hope?

All men are by nature equal, made all of the same earth by one Workman; and however we deceive ourselves, as dear unto God is the poor peasant as the mighty prince.

No man lives without jostling and being jostled; in all ways he has to elbow himself through the world, giving and receiving offence.

We should work with the principle that a work that can be done at a lower level should never be escalated to a higher level.

We humans are self-absorbed by nature, and spend most of our time focusing inwardly on our emotions, on our wounds, on our fantasies.

Let us be moral. Let us contemplate existence.

In the long run, we shape our lives, and we shape ourselves. The process never ends until we die. And the choices we make are ultimately our own responsibility.

Conscience is a mother-in-law whose visit never ends.

I delayed my father’s funeral because of cricket.

Where is the justice of political power if it executes the murderer and jails the plunderer, and then itself marches upon neighboring lands, killing thousands and pillaging the very hills?

I think one of the basic reasons men make good friends is that they can make up their minds quickly.

Of all the varieties of virtues, liberalism is the most beloved.

We should meet abuse by forbearance. Human nature is so constituted that if we take absolutely no notice of anger or abuse, the person indulging in it will soon weary of it and stop.

No man ever quite believes in any other man. One may believe in an idea absolutely, but not in a man.

All virtue is summed up in dealing justly.

No evil propensity of the human heart is so powerful that it may not be subdued by discipline.

Imagination decides everything.

Justice is a temporary thing that must at last come to an end; but the conscience is eternal and will never die.

A president either is constantly on top of events or, if he hesitates, events will soon be on top of him. I never felt that I could let up for a moment.

So act that your principle of action might safely be made a law for the whole world.

I can control my destiny, but not my fate. Destiny means there are opportunities to turn right or left, but fate is a one-way street. I believe we all have the choice as to whether we fulfil our destiny, but our fate is sealed.

Justice will overtake fabricators of lies and false witnesses.

Wisdom consists not so much in knowing what to do in the ultimate as knowing what to do next.

Since it is difficult to join them together, it is safer to be feared than to be loved when one of the two must be lacking.

I think that somehow, we learn who we really are and then live with that decision.

There are two ways of being happy: We must either diminish our wants or augment our means – either may do – the result is the same and it is for each man to decide for himself and to do that which happens to be easier.

Chastity does not mean abstention from sexual wrong; it means something flaming, like Joan of Arc.

Capital punishment is as fundamentally wrong as a cure for crime as charity is wrong as a cure for poverty.