“Discipline is like cabbage. We may not care for it ourselves, but feel sure it would be good for somebody else.”

On the neck of a giraffe a flea begins to believe in immortality.

And this has had a strong tendency to dampen serious discussion of theological issues in most groups, and hence to strengthen the general anti-intellectual bias.

Virtue, like a dowerless beauty, has more admirers than followers.

Everything pales in comparison to deer.

The wise man realistically accepts as part of life and builds a philosophy to meet them and make the most of them. He lives on the principle of nothing attempted, nothing gained and is resolved that if he fails he is going to fail while trying to succeed.

Men do not mirror themselves in running water; they mirror themselves in still water.

American culture has always known success, not suffering, so we’ve never known what to do with this part of the Bible.

The great soul that sits on the throne of the universe is not, never was, and never will be, in a hurry.

Letters should be easy and natural.

It would be nice if the poor were to get even half of the money that is spent in studying them.

The eyes are the amulets of the mind.

A third, of more extensive learning, ran To Sir George Villiers’ Ghost, and Mrs. Veal; Of sheeted Spectres spoke with shorten’d breath, And thrice he quoted Drelincourt on Death.

I count this thing to be grandly true: That a noble deed is a step toward God.

The Universe knows itself and expands itself through me.

O hour, of all hours, the most blesse’d upon earth, The bless’d hour of our dinners!

It’s never safe to be nostalgic about something until you’re absolutely certain there’s no chance of its coming back

I have read descriptions of Paradise that would make any sensible person stop wanting to go there.

The ridiculous is closer to life’s source than the sensible.

When you put someone down all the time, eventually they stop listening to the sensible stuff.

The sensible part of me wanted to dissect my emotions, overthinking and overcomplicating my reaction to jev.

The mathematical difficulties of the theory of rotation arise chiefly from the want of geometrical illustrations and sensible images, by which we might fix the results of analysis in our minds.

Which is better — to be a pack of painted Indians like you are, or to be sensible like Ralph is? Which is better — to have rules and agree, or to hunt and kill? Which is better, law and rescue, or hunting and breaking things up?

A sensible man ought to think about that well being is the best of human blessings, and find out how by his personal thought to derive profit from his sicknesses.

Like most sensible people, you probably lost interest in modern art about the time that Julian Schnabel was painting broken pieces of the crockery that his wife had thrown at him for painting broken pieces of crockery instead of painting the bathroom and hall.