“Politics are a smooth file, which cuts gradually, and attains its end by slow progression.”

There are countries where a man is worth nothing; there are others where he is worth less than nothing.

An injustice committed against anyone is a threat to everyone.

Virtue in a republic is the love of one’s country, that is the love of equality.

There is still another inconvenieney in conquests made by democracies; their government is ever odious to the conquered states. It is apparently monarchical, but in reality it is more oppressive than monarchy, as the experience of all ages and countries evinces.

Solemnity is the shield of idiots

Great commanders write their actions with simplicity; because they receive more glory from facts than from words.

Life was given to me as a favor, so I may abandon it when it is one no longer.

The English are busy; they don’t have time to be polite.

Each particular society begins to feel its strength, whence arises a state of war between different nations.

The crime against nature will never make any great progress in society unless people are prompted to it by some particular custom.

Certain kinds of foolishness are such that a greater foolishness would be better.

The majority of men are more capable of great actions than of good ones.

The life of man is but a succession of vain hopes and groundless fears.

For a country, everything will be lost when the jobs of an economist and a banker become highly respected professions.

No kingdom has shed more blood than the kingdom of Christ.

Religious wars are not caused by the fact that there is more than one religion, but by the spirit of intolerance… the spread of which can only be regarded as the total eclipse of human reason.

A lot of ideas get re-used and made part of new songs if the first version didn’t cut the mustard, and the stuff that gets left off usually contained the germ of something good but failed to reach a satisfactory state by the recording stage.

The key is to cut out the middleman and empower both doctor and patient with information about what things cost.

Of course it would cost something, but he was an expert in cutting corners; and when there were no more corners left he would make circles rounder.

A thousand times over, the death knell of the Bible has been sounded, the funeral procession formed, the inscription cut on the tombstone, and committal read. But somehow the corpse never stays put.

I get facials. I get a manicure and pedicure every week. I get my hair cut, and I oil myself down from head to toe. I got that from my brother. I was so impressed with how high maintenance he was. When he left the room, you could still smell him for an hour.

Historically, defense spending cuts have preceded increased international turmoil as America’s global enemies sense a failure of will.

Cut through the ridicule and search for factual information in most of the skeptical commentary and one is usually left with nothing. This is not surprising. After all, how can one rationally object to a call for scientific examination of evidence? Be skeptical of the skeptics.

If a speculator is correct half of the time, he is hitting a good average.