“Photography is a brief complicity between foresight and luck.”

A man and still more the woman, who can be accused either of doing “what nobody does,” or of not doing “what everybody does,” is the subject of as much depreciatory remark as if he or she had committed some grave moral delinquency.

There is an imaginary circle drawn around every human being, over which no government should be able to step.

Ask yourself whether you are happy, and you cease to be so.

There is the greatest difference between presuming an opinion to be true, because, with every opportunity for contesting it, it has not been refuted, and assuming its truth for the purpose of not permitting its refutation.

There is one plain rule of life. Try thyself unweariedly till thou findest the highest thing thou art capable of doing, faculties and outward circumstances being both duly considered, and then do it.

He who lets the world choose his plan of life for him has need of no other faculty than that of ape-like imitation.

The struggle between Liberty and Authority is the most conspicuous feature in the portions of history with which we are earliest familiar; particularly in that of Greece, Rome, and England

The study of science teaches young men to think, while study of the classics teaches them to express thought.

The pupil who is never required to do what he cannot do, never does what he can do.

The most cogent reason for restricting the interference of government is the great evil of adding unnecessarily to its power.

Since the general or prevailing opinion on any subject is rarely or never the whole truth, it is only by the collision of adverse opinion that the remainder of the truth has any chance of being supplied.

The object of universities is not to make skillful lawyers, physicians or engineers. It is to make capable and cultivated human beings.

No slave is a slave to the same lengths, and in so full a sense of the word, as a wife is.

All silencing of discussion is an assumption of infallibility.

Liberty lies in the rights of that person whose views you find most odious.

The perpetual obstacle to human advancement is custom.

But only a brief moment is granted to the brave one breath or two, whose wage is the long nights of the grave.

Faith is much better than belief. Belief is when someone else does the thinking.

No man pleases by silence; many I please by speaking briefly.

In our brief national history we have shot four of our presidents, worried five of them to death, impeached one and hounded another out of office. And when all else fails, we hold an election and assassinate their character.

The briefest moment shared with you-the longest on my mind.

Don’t let it be forgot, that once there was a spot, for one brief shining moment, that was known as Camelot.

Having lost the last war, they are currently enjoying a “Wirtschaftswunder,” which can be briefly translated as “The best way to own a Mercedes is to build one.”

Reading is untidy, discursive and perpetually inviting. Briefing closes down a subject, reading opens it up.