“It is only an error of judgment to make a mistake, but it argues an infirmity of character to adhere to it when discovered.”

Poverty is only contemptible when it is felt to be so. Doubtless the best way to make our poverty respectable is to seem never to feel it as an evil.

A woman’s love, like lichens upon a rock, will still grow where even charity can find no soil to nurture itself.

Something of a person’s character may be observed by how they smile. Some never smile they only grin.

The loveliest faces are to be seen by moonlight, when one sees half with the eye and half with the fancy.

Music is the fourth great material want, first food, then clothes, then shelter, then music.

The greatest happiness comes from the greatest activity.

Whether one talks well depends very much upon whom he has to talk to.

Few minds wear out; more rust out.

Heaven lent you a soul, Earth will lend a grave.

Within the sacred walls of libraries we find the best thoughts, the purest feelings, and the most exalted imaginings of our race.

Economy is for the poor; the rich may dispense with it.

Excellence in art is largely the result of attention to minutiae, and–prayer.

Truth, like the sun, submits to be obscured; but, like the sun, only for a time.

The grandest of all laws is the law of progressive development. Under it, in the wide sweep of things, men grow wiser as they grow older, and societies better.

We should round every day of stirring action with an evening of thought. We learn nothing of our experience except we muse upon it.

In politics, merit is rewarded by the possessor being raised, like a target, to a position to be fired at.

If you’re rational and logical, they argue their case rationally and logically. If you’re loyal and faithful, they turn those against you.

For when the horse and ass begin to think and argue, adieu to riding and driving.

You learn to sing with, not argue at, your possible readers.

Experience of freedom in America. Some would argue that it goes beyond hampering their “pursuit of happiness” to outright obliterating it.

There’s a bunch of songs that I call B-sides on the record that you could argue could maybe have some potential commercial success with another artist, but for me, they just felt really whack.

Courage is inseparable from love and leads to what may arguably be the noblest of all warrior virtues: selflessness.

Whenever I hear anyone arguing for slavery, I feel a strong impulse to see it tried on him personally.

When proven wrong, the wise man will correct himself and the ignorant will keep arguing.