“Tyrants have not yet discovered any chains that can fetter the mind.”

When you have nothing to say, say nothing; a weak defense strengthens your opponent, and silence is less injurious than a bad reply.

Words indeed are but the signs and counters of knowledge, and their currency should be strictly regulated by the capital which they represent.

A coxcomb begins by determining that his own profession is the first; and he finishes by deciding that he is the first of profession.

Revenge is fever in our own blood, to be cured only by letting the blood of another; but the remedy too often produces a relapse, which is remorse–a malady far more dreadful than the first disease, because it is incurable.

Attempts at reform, when they fail, strengthen despotism, as he that struggles tightens those cords he does not succeed in breaking.

Men of great and shining qualities do not always succeed in life, but the fault lies more often in themselves than in others.

There is nothing more imprudent than excessive prudence.

Doubt is the vestibule through which all must pass before they can enter into the temple of wisdom.

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.

There are two principles of established acceptance in morals; first, that self-interest is the mainspring of all of our actions, and secondly, that utility is the test of their value.

Times of great calamity and confusion have been productive for the greatest minds. The purest ore is produced from the hottest furnace. The brightest thunder-bolt is elicited from the darkest storm.

Grant graciously what you cannot refuse safely and conciliate those you cannot conquer.

It is the briefest yet wisest maxim which tells us to meddle not.

For one man who sincerely pities our misfortunes, there are a thousand who sincerely hate our success.

Logic and metaphysics make use of more tools than all the rest of the sciences put together, and do the least work.

As no roads are so rough as those that have just been mended, so no sinners are so intolerant as those that have just turned saints.

To see is one thing; to picture or visualise is another. A person can see things, only when his eyes are open, and when his surroundings are illuminated; but he can have pictures in his mind’s eye, when his eyes are shut and when the world is dark.

I am told the Cheney-Bush team dislikes their junta being compared to the Nazis. If they ceased behaving like Nazis, no comparison would come to mind.

I had my father’s mind, but he had his mother’s mind. Fortunately, his mother lived with us and so I early realized that intellectual abilities of the kind I shared with my father and grandmother were not sex-linked.

People who are lazy, careless, doubtful-minded or arrogant need not expect God to reveal His secret or covenant to them.

Orthodox Christianity, by playing upon the emotions of man, is able to accomplish wonders toward keeping him in order and relieving his mind. It can frighten or cajole him away from evil more effectively than could reason.

Through the ingenuousness of her age beamed an ardent mind, a mind not of the women but of the poet; she did not please, she intoxicated.

No matter what, people grow. If you chose not to grow, you’re staying in a small box with a small mindset.

What is more comforting to the terrorists around the world: the failure to pass the 9/11 legislation because we lacked a majority of the majority,’ or putting aside partisan politics to enact tough new legislation with America’s security foremost in mind?