I would rather sit on a pumpkin and have it all to myself than to be crowded on a velvet cushion.
Whate'er we leave to God God does and blesses us.
Philanthropy is. . . greatly overrated. A pain in the gut is not sympathy for the underprivileged, but the result of eating a green apple; the philanthropist gives to ease his own pain.
If you would convince a man that he does wrong, do right. But do not care to convince him. Men will believe what they see. Let them see.
The lawyer's truth is not Truth, but consistency or a consistent expediency.
If the machine of government is of such a nature that it requires you to be the agent of injustice to another, then, I say, break the law.
A man cannot be said to succeed in this life who does not satisfy one friend.
It is best to avoid the beginnings of evil.
It is remarkable that, notwithstanding the universal favor with which the New Testament is outwardly received, and even the bigotry with which it is defended, there is no hospitality shown to, there i...
But man's capacities have never been measured; nor are we to judge of what he can do by any precedents, so little have been tried.
There is one consolation in being sick and that is the possibility that you may recover to a better state than you were ever in before.
Live your beliefs and you can turn the world around.
I never found the companion that was so companionable as solitude.
You cannot receive a shock unless you have an electric affinity for that which shocks you.
It's only by forgetting yourself that you draw near to God.
There is just as much beauty visible to us in the landscape as we are prepared to appreciate, and not a grain more. ... A man sees only what concerns him.
Some of my pleasantest hours were during the long rain-storms in the spring or fall, which confined me to the house for the afternoon as well as the forenoon, soothed by their ceaseless roar and pelti...
A wise man will know what game to play to-day, and play it. We must not be governed by rigid rules, as by the almanac, but let the season rule us. The moods and thoughts of man are revolving just as s...
Many men go fishing all of their lives without knowing that it is not fish they are after.
Visit the Navy-Yard, and behold a marine, such a man as an American government can make, or such as it can make a man with its black arts, -a mere shadow and reminiscence of humanity, a man laid out a...