“Our admiration of fine writing will always be in proportion to its real difficulty and its apparent ease.”

Women do not transgress the bounds of decorum so often as men; but when they do, they go greater lengths.

He that places himself neither higher nor lower than he ought to do exercises the truest humility.

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.

People go through life blindly, ignoring death like revellers at a party feasting on fine foods. They ignore that later they will have to go to the toilet, so they do not bother to find out where there is one.

For me, there’s a fine line between telling a story that’s fictional with lots of details and then removing yourself too much from it, so it’s bloodless, a little too fictional.

I’m fine with that. People say things when it’s time to say them.

I always was alone. And I’m alone today. It’s fine. I have lots of friends, but not in terms of working together.

Science was tearing through the ‘fine-spun ecclesiastical cobwebs’.

Let’s try to discover areas we can work together. That’s fine. We’re two a world power.

Although a man may wear fine clothing, if he lives peacefully; and is good, self-possessed, has faith and is pure; and if he does not hurt any living being, he is a holy man.

And you can constantly look back when you’re in some sort of fix and say, “Well, on so-and-so film, we did this, and it worked out fine.”