Tricks and treachery are the practice of fools, that don’t have brains enough to be honest.

An investment in knowledge pays the best interest.

Nothing is more terrible than activity without insight.

Despair is the conclusion of fools.

The man of life upright has a guiltless heart, free from all dishonest deeds or thought of vanity.

Never go to excess, but let moderation be your guide.

‚Suffering should not make us bitter people,‘ my mother once said, ‚it should make us better comforters.‘ Young people need to hear this from those who have walked before them, because someday they’ll be walking those same steps, but there may not be anyone following behind.

All truths are easy to understand once they are discovered; the point is to discover them.

He who would pass his declining years with honor and comfort, should, when young, consider that he may one day become old, and remember when he is old, that he has once been young.

He is a hard man who is only just, and a sad one who is only wise.

You cannot step into the same river twice.

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

Children are a wonderful gift. They have an extraordinary capacity to see into the heart of things and to expose sham and humbug for what they are.

I hope I shall possess firmness and virtue enough to maintain what I consider the most enviable of all titles, the character of an honest man.

The greater our knowledge increases the more our ignorance unfolds.

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.

Heat not a furnace for your foe so hot that it do singe yourself.

No man was ever wise by chance.

I have no faith in human perfectability. I think that human exertion will have no appreciable effect upon humanity. Man is now only more active – not more happy – nor more wise, than he was 6000 years ago.

Whoever doesn’t know it must learn and find by experience that ‚a quiet conscience makes one strong!‘

Growing old is like being increasingly penalized for a crime you haven’t committed.

A wise ruler ought never to keep faith when by doing so it would be against his interests.

True virtue is life under the direction of reason.

There’s one way to find out if a man is honest – ask him. If he says, ‚Yes,‘ you know he is a crook.

Our character is what we do when we think no one is looking.

People need good lies. There are too many bad ones.

People grow through experience if they meet life honestly and courageously. This is how character is built.

Sometimes the majority just means all the fools are on the same side.

Neither should a ship rely on one small anchor, nor should life rest on a single hope.

As I grow older, I pay less attention to what men say. I just watch what they do.

All our knowledge begins with the senses, proceeds then to the understanding, and ends with reason. There is nothing higher than reason.

A wise man should consider that health is the greatest of human blessings, and learn how by his own thought to derive benefit from his illnesses.

Fable is more historical than fact, because fact tells us about one man and fable tells us about a million men.

It is best to avoid the beginnings of evil.

This is the highest wisdom that I own; freedom and life are earned by those alone who conquer them each day anew.

Ignorance and bungling with love are better than wisdom and skill without.

One tells as few lies as possible only by telling as few lies as possible, and not by having the least possible opportunity to do so.

The wise are instructed by reason, average minds by experience, the stupid by necessity and the brute by instinct.

Good fame is like fire; when you have kindled you may easily preserve it; but if you extinguish it, you will not easily kindle it again.

I’ve got nothing to hide.

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

He that fails in his endeavors after wealth or power will not long retain either honesty or courage.

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

A little learning is a dangerous thing, but we must take that risk because a little is as much as our biggest heads can hold.

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

When I was young I thought that money was the most important thing in life; now that I am old I know that it is.

When a distinguished but elderly scientist states that something is possible, he is almost certainly right. When he states that something is impossible, he is very probably wrong.

Choose silence of all virtues, for by it you hear other men’s imperfections, and conceal your own.

Mediocrity can talk, but it is for genius to observe.

As the biggest library if it is in disorder is not as useful as a small but well-arranged one, so you may accumulate a vast amount of knowledge but it will be of far less value than a much smaller amount if you have not thought it over for yourself.

The man of knowledge must be able not only to love his enemies but also to hate his friends.

An egg today is better than a hen to-morrow.

Is the babe young? When I behold it, it seems more venerable than the oldest man.

I had therefore to remove knowledge, in order to make room for belief.

They must often change, who would be constant in happiness or wisdom.

All my life I’ve been taught how to die, but no one ever taught me how to grow old.

True knowledge exists in knowing that you know nothing.

You can always tell an old soldier by the inside of his holsters and cartridge boxes. The young ones carry pistols and cartridges; the old ones, grub.

The best thing is to always keep honest people around, because when you have a bunch of yes men around that know that you’re making a mistake but let you go on with it, that’s when it ruins your mind state as an artist.

Men who have reached and passed forty-five, have a look as if waiting for the secret of the other world, and as if they were perfectly sure of having found out the secret of this.

Truth is so rare that it is delightful to tell it.