“Involved sentences, crooked, circuitous, and parenthetical, no matter how musically they may be balanced, are prejudicial to a facile understanding of the truth.”

It is for men to choose whether they will govern themselves or be governed.

Every man should keep a fair-sized cemetery in which to bury the faults of his friends.

Pushing any truth out very far, you are met by a counter-truth.

Adversity, if for no other reason, is of benefit, since it is sure to bring a season of sober reflection. People see clearer at such times. Storms purify the atmosphere.

Every tomorrow has two handles. We can take hold of it with the handle of anxiety or the handle of faith.

Some men are like pyramids, which are very broad where they touch the ground, but grow narrow as they reach the sky.

Life would be a perpetual flea hunt if a man were obliged to run down all the innuendoes, inveracities, and insinuations and misrepresentations which are uttered against him.

Blessed are they who know how to shine on one’s gloom with their cheer.

Greatness lies not in being strong, but in the right use of strength.

Sorrows, as storms, bring down the clouds close to the earth; sorrows bring heaven down close; and they are instruments of cleansing and purifying.

If you are idle, you are on the road to ruin; and there are few stopping-places upon it. It is rather a precipice than a road

There is no friendship, no love, like that of the parent for the child.

A Christian is nothing but a sinful man who has put himself to school for Christ for the honest purpose of becoming better.

The mother’s heart is the child’s schoolroom.

Next to victory, there is nothing so sweet as defeat, if only the right adversary overcomes you.

Troubles are often the tools by which God fashions us for better things.

I have been a little off balance since the day I met you. This is because I had never known what it is like to be perfectly aligned.

My parents showed me by example that they could balance their work and family lives.

Women and men grow up with both sexes. Our mothers and fathers mean a lot to us, so it’s just a question of finding a balance between their influences. I’ve found mine. And it tends to be more on the male side. I mean male side the way we understand it in the West.

The checks and balances is a way to prevent government from either devolving into an autocratic tyranny or an autocratic mob mentality.

In whatever position one is in, or in whatever condition in life one is placed, one must find balance. Balance is the state of the present – the here and now. If you balance in the present, you are living in Eternity.

The power is in the balance: we are our injuries, as much as we are our successes.

The more usual reason for adopting a strategy of limited aim is that of awaiting a change in the balance of force … The essential condition of such a strategy is that the drain on him should be disproportionately greater than on oneself.

Doubt can motivate you, so don’t be afraid of it. Confidence and doubt are at two ends of the scale, and you need both. They balance each other out.