“It is a base thing for a man among the people not to obey those in command. Never in a state can the laws be well administered when fear does not stand firm.”

How terrible is wisdom, when it brings no profit to the man that’s wise.

Knowledge must come through action. You can have no test which is not fanciful, save by trial.

The greatest griefs are those we cause ourselves.

Whoever lives among many evils just as I, how can dying not be a source of gain?

I recommend bread, meat, vegetables, and beer.

The oaths of a woman I inscribe on water.

A mind at peace does not engender wars.

Nobody likes the bringer of bad news.

Our happiness depends on wisdom all the way.

I have no desire to suffer twice, in reality and then in retrospect.

Time, which sees all things, has found you out.

Do nothing secretly; for Time sees and hears all things, and discloses all.

There is a point beyond which even justice becomes unjust.

Laziness is the mother of all evils.

You don’t know what kind of day you will have, until evening.

Knowledge must come through action.

Those who serve upon our juries have maintained a standard of fairness and excellence and demonstrated a vision toward the administration of justice that is a wellspring of inspiration.

Oh, I don’t think Tom Sowell would tell anybody to join the administration. That’s not his style. But I think his attitude has always been if it had to be done he’d prefer me to do it than somebody else.

To argue with a person who has renounced the use of reason is like administering medicine to the dead.

To argue with a man who has renounced the use and authority of reason, and whose philosophy consists in holding humanity in contempt, is like administering medicine to the dead, or endeavoring to convert an atheist by scripture.

Justice, however, never was in reality administered gratis in any country. Lawyers and attornies, at least, must always be paid by the parties; and, if they were not, they would perform their duty still worse than they actually perform it.

Little else is requisite to carry a state to the highest degree of opulence from the lowest barbarism but peace, easy taxes, and a tolerable administration of justice: all the rest being brought about by the natural course of things.

How fortunate for governments that the people they administer don’t think.

Law and order are the medicine of the body politic and when the body politic gets sick, medicine must be administered.