“Perverseness is your whole defence.”

It often happens that, if a lie be believed only for an hour, it has done its work, and there is no further occasion for it.

You cannot reason a person out of something they were not reasoned into.

Positiveness is a good quality for preachers and speakers because, whoever shares his thoughts with the public will convince them as he himself appears convinced.

This made me reflect, how vain an attempt it is for a man to endeavor to do himself honor among those who are out of all degree of equality or comparison with him.

Wise people are never less alone than when they are alone.

Argument is the worst sort of conversation.

There’s none so blind as they that won’t see.

Live every day as your last, because one of these days, it will be.

Nothing is so hard for those who abound in riches as to conceive how others can be in want.

Every dog must have his day.

I said there was a society of men among us, bred up from their youth in the art of proving by words multiplied for the purpose, that white is black, and black is white, according as they are paid. To this society all the rest of the people are as slaves.

A wise man should have money in his head, but not in his heart.

When a true genius appears, you can know him by this sign: that all the dunces are in a confederacy against him.

I’m as old as my tongue and a little older than my teeth.

Brisk talkers are generally slow thinkers.

Religion seems to have grown an infant with age, and requires miracles to nurse it, as it had in its infancy.

Opportunities are not offered. They must be wrested and worked for. And this calls for perseverance and courage.

Victory belongs to the most persevering.

Patience and perseverance have a magical effect before which difficulties disappear and obstacles vanish.

Courage and perseverance have a magical talisman, before which difficulties disappear and obstacles vanish into air.

We learned that leadership requires belief in the mission and unyielding perseverance to achieve victory, particularly when doubters question whether victory is even possible.

Effort is the unconstrained willingness to persevere through difficulty.

When you do something you love with passion and perseverance, you are already a success. Even if you never hit the big time, who cares?

For any marginalized group to change the story that society tells about them takes courage and perseverance.