“It is better to fail in originality than to succeed in imitation.”

Truth is in things, and not in words.

One of the coolest and wisest hours a man has, is just after he awakes in the morning.

We cannot live only for ourselves. A thousand fibers connect us with our fellow men.

The most mighty of nature’s laws is this, that out of Death she brings Life.

The Past is the textbook of tyrants; the Future the Bible of the Free. Those who are solely governed by the Past stand like Lot’s wife, crystallized in the act of looking backward, and forever incapable of looking before.

All deep, earnest thinking is but the intrepid effort of the soul to keep the open independence of her sea, while the wildest winds of heaven and earth conspire to cast her on the treacherous, slavish shore.

Ladies are like creeds; if you cannot speak well of them, say nothing.

Better be an old maid, a woman with herself as a husband, than the wife of a fool; and Solomon more than hints that all men are fools; and every wise man knows himself to be one.

Honor lies in the mane of a horse.

The poor man wants many things; the covetous man, all.

There is nothing so slipperily alluring as sadness; we become sad in the first place by having nothing stirring to do; we continue in it, because we have found a snug sofa at last.

Yet habit – strange thing! what cannot habit accomplish?

If you can get nothing better out of the world, get a good dinner out of it, at least.

Thinking is, or ought to be, a coolness and a calmness; and our poor hearts throb, and our poor brains beat too much for that.

Old age is always wakeful; as if, the longer linked with life, the less man has to do with aught that looks like death.

In a multitude of acquaintances is less security, than in one faithful friend.

Contentment may be the most powerful Financial Principle. You can give more, avoid debt, and live better.

Become a better person and be sure to know who you are, before meeting someone new and hoping that person knows who you are.

If you have to support yourself, you had bloody well better find some way that is going to be interesting.

It is often better to be restricted to necessity than unconfined in the measure of our desires: prosperity destroys more individuals than adversity ruins.

It’s better to fight because if you don’t fight, you can’t win. Besides, even when you don’t win, you can change the game.

Even people you hate deserve opinions. And sometimes they’re going to have better ideas than yours. Keep an open mind to everyone.

Anything you want to say about God you better make sure you can say in front of a pit of burning babies.

I’m still basically an idealist, which translates into getting real things done to make people’s lives better.