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

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

In the long-run every Government is the exact symbol of its People, with their wisdom and unwisdom; we have to say, Like People like Government.

Silence is the virtue of fools.

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

Ignorant people see life as either existence or non-existence, but wise men see it beyond both existence and non-existence to something that transcends them both; this is an observation of the Middle Way.

A man who suffers before it is necessary, suffers more than is necessary.

Thoughts without content are empty, intuitions without concepts are blind.

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

A professor must have a theory as a dog must have fleas.

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

Listen to many, speak to a few.

All knowledge which ends in words will die as quickly as it came to life, with the exception of the written word: which is its mechanical part.

Do not spoil what you have by desiring what you have not; remember that what you now have was once among the things you only hoped for.

A wise woman wishes to be no one’s enemy; a wise woman refuses to be anyone’s victim.

I stand by all the misstatements that I’ve made.

Keep your eyes wide open before marriage, half shut afterwards.

Many people resented my impatience and honesty, but I never cared about acceptance as much as I cared about respect.

It is not when truth is dirty, but when it is shallow, that the lover of knowledge is reluctant to step into its waters.

All theory, dear friend, is gray, but the golden tree of life springs ever green.

If we are to go forward, we must go back and rediscover those precious values – that all reality hinges on moral foundations and that all reality has spiritual control.

I have never met a man so ignorant that I couldn’t learn something from him.

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

As the eagle was killed by the arrow winged with his own feather, so the hand of the world is wounded by its own skill.

How do you know what it’s like to be stupid if you’ve never been smart?

The doors of wisdom are never shut.

The empty vessel makes the loudest sound.

Do not ask for what you will wish you had not got.

He who knows, does not speak. He who speaks, does not know.

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

Truth is mighty and will prevail. There is nothing wrong with this, except that it ain’t so.

Genius always gives its best at first; prudence, at last.

A loving heart is the truest wisdom.

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

It is impossible to live a pleasant life without living wisely and well and justly. And it is impossible to live wisely and well and justly without living a pleasant life.

An eye for an eye only ends up making the whole world blind.

A ‚No‘ uttered from the deepest conviction is better than a ‚Yes‘ merely uttered to please, or worse, to avoid trouble.

Truthful words are not beautiful; beautiful words are not truthful. Good words are not persuasive; persuasive words are not good.

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

The superior man understands what is right; the inferior man understands what will sell.

Every man is a quotation from all his ancestors.

The person who doesn’t scatter the morning dew will not comb gray hairs.

No greater thing is created suddenly, any more than a bunch of grapes or a fig. If you tell me that you desire a fig, I answer you that there must be time. Let it first blossom, then bear fruit, then ripen.

A remark generally hurts in proportion to its truth.

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

The sage does not hoard. The more he helps others, the more he benefits himself, The more he gives to others, the more he gets himself. The Way of Heaven does one good but never does one harm. The Way of the sage is to act but not to compete.

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

Many sophisticated, intelligent people lack wisdom and common sense.

To reform a world, to reform a nation, no wise man will undertake; and all but foolish men know, that the only solid, though a far slower reformation, is what each begins and perfects on himself.

Suppose that we are wise enough to learn and know – and yet not wise enough to control our learning and knowledge, so that we use it to destroy ourselves? Even if that is so, knowledge remains better than ignorance.

False words are not only evil in themselves, but they infect the soul with evil.

The least initial deviation from the truth is multiplied later a thousandfold.

It is most unwise for people in love to marry.

All men are frauds. The only difference between them is that some admit it. I myself deny it.

Regarding life, the wisest men of all ages have judged alike: it is worthless.

The true sign of intelligence is not knowledge but imagination.

Many a good hanging prevents a bad marriage.

Where there is shouting, there is no true knowledge.

Old age is like everything else. To make a success of it, you’ve got to start young.

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

You don’t tell deliberate lies, but sometimes you have to be evasive.