“There is tonic in the things that men do not love to hear. Free speech is to a great people what the winds are to oceans and where free speech is stopped miasma is bred, and death comes fast.”

I can forgive, but I cannot forget, is only another way of saying, I will not forgive. Forgiveness ought to be like a cancelled note – torn in two, and burned up, so that it never can be shown against one.

Debt rolls a man over and over, binding him hand and foot, and letting him hang upon the fatal mesh until the long-legged interest devours him.

Compassion will cure more sins than condemnation.

In the early ages men ruled by strength; now they rule by brain, and so long as there is only one man in the world who can think and plan, he will stand head and shoulders above him who cannot.

The best lessons a man ever learns are from his mistakes. It is not for want of schoolmasters that we are still ignorant.

Hold yourself responsible for a higher standard than anybody expects of you. Never excuse yourself.

To array a man’s will against his sickness is the supreme art of medicine.

No coffee can be good in the mouth that does not first send a sweet offering of odor to the nostrils.

The real democratic American idea is, not that every man shall be on a level with every other man, but that every man shall have liberty to be what God made him, without hindrance.

Do not give, as many rich men do, like a hen that lays her eggs and then cackles.

The dog is the god of frolic.

It is defeat that turns bone to flint; it is defeat that turns gristle to muscle; it is defeat that makes men invincible. Do not then be afraid of defeat. You are never so near to victory as when defeated in a good cause.

Whatever is almost true is quite false, and among the most dangerous of errors, because being so near truth, it is more likely to lead astray.

When a man says that he is perfect already, there is only one of two places for him, and that is heaven or the lunatic asylum.

Love is the river of life in this world.

It is for men to choose whether they will govern themselves or be governed.