“It is useless to attempt to reason a man out of a thing he was never reasoned into.”

Reasoning will never make a man correct an ill opinion, which by reasoning he never acquired

No man will take counsel, but every man will take money. Therefore, money is better than counsel.

It is as hard to satirize well a man of distinguished vices, as to praise well a man of distinguished virtues.

If you were not reasoned into your beliefs, you cannot be reasoned out of them.

It is the talent of human nature to run from one extreme to another.

Falsehood flies, and truth comes limping after it, so that when men come to be undeceived, it is too late; the jest is over, and the tale hath had its effect.

When I am reading a book, whether wise or silly, it seems to me to be alive and talking to me.

And surely one of the best rules in conversation is, never to say a thing which any of the company can reasonably wish had been left unsaid.

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.

The man is happiest who lives from day to day and asks no more, garnering the simple goodness of life.

Let the ways of love be the ways of man.

Education means emancipation. It means light and liberty. It means the uplifting of the soul of man into the glorious light of truth, the light by which men can only be made free.

I hope I shall possess firmness and virtue enough to maintain what I consider the most enviable of all titles, the character of an honest man.

Thus we have given to man a pedigree of prodigious length, but not, it may be said, of noble quality.

A great man, tender of heart, strong of nerve, boundless patience and broadest sympathy, with no motive apart from his country.

The ideal man bears the accidents of life with dignity and grace, making the best of circumstances.

Freedom is the intrinsic desire of each man, each woman – utter freedom, absolute freedom.