“God will excuse our prayers for ourselves whenever we are prevented from them by being occupied in such good works as to entitle us to the prayers of others.”

Physical courage, which despises all danger, will make a man brave in one way; and moral courage, which despises all opinion, will make a man brave in another.

In death itself there can be nothing terrible, for the act of death annihilates sensation; but there are many roads to death, and some of them justly formidable, even to the bravest.

Nothing more completely baffles one who is full of trick and duplicity himself, than straight forward and simple integrity in another.

Total freedom from error is what none of us will allow to our neighbors; however we may be inclined to flirt a little with such spotless perfection ourselves.

None are so fond of secrets as those who do not mean to keep them; such persons covet secrets as a spendthrift covets money, for the purpose of circulation.

Life isn’t like a book. Life isn’t logical or sensible or orderly. Life is a mess most of the time. And theology must be lived in the midst of that mess.

If a cause be good, the most violent attack of its enemies will not injure it so much as an injudicious defence of it by its friends.

We should not be too niggardly in our praise, for men will do more to support a character than to raise one.

Pleasure is to women what the sun is to the flower; if moderately enjoyed, it beautifies, it refreshes, and it improves; if immoderately, it withers, deteriorates and destroys.

Constant success shows us but one side of the world. For as it surrounds us with friends who will tell us only our merits, so it silences those enemies from whom alone we can learn our defects.

Imitation is the highest form of flattery.

A harmless hilarity and a buoyant cheerfulness are not infrequent concomitants of genius; and we are never more deceived than when we mistake gravity for greatness, solemnity for science, and pomposity for erudition.

Honor is the most capricious in her rewards. She feeds us with air, and often pulls down our house, to build our monument.

Be real and adjust you strategy according to honest results.

It is with nations as with individuals, those who know the least of others think the highest of themselves; for the whole family of pride and ignorance are incestuous, and mutually beget each other.

Knowledge is two-fold, and consists not only in an affirmation of what is true, but in the negation of that which is false.

America should be working more with the Mexicans to prevent the flow of guns going south into Mexico that have fueled so much of the violence there.

Language is neither reactionary nor progressive; it is quite simply fascist; for fascism does not prevent speech, it compels speech.

The fight against corruption is successful if you prevent corruption taking place in the first place.

There is no Kurdish state. But that shouldn’t prevent the Kurds from continuing to develop their own institutions. Still, the best thing for them would be to remain a part of Iraq, but in return we must treat them with respect – their nationality, their language and their culture.

We must ruthlessly prevent a change of power.

I wish that being famous helped prevent me from being constipated.

And prevent the ball from going into the pivot man.

Those vestiges of natures left behind Which reason cannot quite expel from us Are still so slight that naught prevents a man From living a life even worthy of the gods.