“We should not speak so that it is possible for the audience to understand us, but so that it is impossible for them to misunderstand us.”

A mediocre speech supported by all the power of delivery will be more impressive than the best speech unaccompanied by such power.

Lately we have had many losses.

It is the heart which inspires eloquence.

Where evil habits are once settled, they are more easily broken than mended.

The soul languishing in obscurity contracts a kind of rust, or abandons itself to the chimera of presumption; for it is natural for it to acquire something, even when separated from any one.

While we are making up our minds as to when we shall begin. The opportunity is lost.

When defeat is inevitable, it is wisest to yield.

Our minds are like our stomaches; they are whetted by the change of their food, and variety supplies both with fresh appetite.

Though ambition may be a fault in itself, it is often the mother of virtues.

In almost everything, experience is more valuable than precept.

To my mind the boy who gives least promise is one in whom the critical faculty develops in advance of the imagination.

It is worth while too to warn the teacher that undue severity in correcting faults is liable at times to discourage a boy’s mind from effort.

For it would have been better that man should have been born dumb, nay, void of all reason, rather than that he should employ the gifts of Providence to the destruction of his neighbor.

Usage is the best language teacher.

A Woman who is generous with her money is to be praised; not so, if she is generous with her person.

Suffering itself does less afflict the senses than the apprehension of suffering.

It isn’t easy being a brilliant inventor, always alone. Always misunderstood. Easy to turn bitter, make horrible mistakes. People are more difficult to work with than machines. And when you break a person, he can’t be fixed. -Hephaestus

You’re begging for a second chance since you’re sure you can prove it was just a silly misunderstanding unfortunately I’d rather drink bleach than try to get along with you.

There is only one good thing in life, and that is love. And how you misunderstand it! how you spoil it! You treat it as something solemn like a sacrament, or something to be bought, like a dress.

I think people often misunderstand that I work as hard and want things just as badly as anybody else.