“Any one prominent in affairs can always see when a man may steal a horse and when a man may not look over a hedge.”

There is nothing perhaps so generally consoling to a man as a well-established grievance.

Let no man boast himself that he has got through the perils of winter till at least the seventh of May.

We cannot bring ourselves to believe it possible that a foreigner should in any respect be wiser than ourselves.

Never think that you’re not good enough yourself. A man should never think that.

Wine is valued for its price, not its flavor.

Nobody holds a good opinion of a man who has a low opinion of himself.

There is such a difference between life and theory.

The double pleasure of pulling down an opponent, and of raising oneself, is the charm of a politician’s life.

Men who can succeed in deceiving no one else, will succeed at last in deceiving themselves.

This habit of reading, I make bold to tell you, is your pass to the greatest, the purest, and the most perfect pleasure that God has prepared for His creatures.

Men and not measures are, no doubt, the very life of politics. But then it is not the fashion to say so in public places.

Caveat emptor is the only motto going, and the worst proverb that ever came from the dishonest stony-hearted Rome.

The chances are perhaps more in favour of ruin than of success. But, whatever may be the chances, I shall go on as long as any means of carrying on the fight are at my disposal.

But who ever yet was offered a secret and declined it?

There is nothing more tyrannical than a strong popular feeling among a democratic people.

Success is a poison that should only be taken late in life and then only in small doses.

It is more important to know where you are going than to get there quickly. Do not mistake activity for achievement. Remember that there is nothing stable in human affairs, therefore avoid undue elation in prosperity or undue depression in adversity.

When the shoe fits, the foot is forgotten. When the belt fits, the belly is forgotten. When the heart is right, “for” and “against” are forgotten. No drives, no compulsions, no needs, no attractions: Then your affairs are under control. You are a free man.

I am of certain convinced that the greatest heroes are those who do their duty in the daily grind of domestic affairs whilst the world whirls as a maddening dreidel.

If the affairs of the world were put in the hands of the screwball artists, it couldn’t be in a worse state than it is now !

If the affairs of the world were put in the hands of the screwball artists, it couldn’t be in a worse state than it is now !

It is ridiculous to suppose that the great head of things, whatever it be, pays any regard to human affairs.

Genius is mainly an affair of energy.

Had the price of looking been blindness, I would have looked.