“I never desire to converse with a man who has written more than he has read.”

No government power can be abused long. Mankind will not bear it…. There is a remedy in human nature against tyranny, that will keep us safe under every form of government.

It is better to suffer wrong than to do it, and happier to be sometimes cheated than not to trust.

Exert your talents, and distinguish yourself, and don’t think of retiring from the world, until the world will be sorry that you retire.

The misery of man proceeds not from any single crush of overwhelming evil, but from small vexations continually repeated.

What is easy is seldom excellent.

Liberty is, to the lowest rank of every nation, little more than the choice of working or starving.

When any calamity is suffered, the first thing to be remembered is, how much has been escaped.

None but a fool worries about things he cannot influence.

A man is in general better pleased when he has a good dinner upon his table, than when his wife talks Greek.

When there is no hope, there can be no endeavor.

No man was ever great by imitation.

To preserve health is a moral and religious duty: for health is the basis of all social virtues; and we can be useful no longer than while we are well.

From thee, great God, we spring, to thee we tend,- Path, motive, guide, original, and end.

A little knowledge is a dangerous thing – it only hastens fools to rush in where angels fear to tread.

Our aspirations are our possibilities.

When a man knows he is to be hanged in a fortnight, it concentrates his mind wonderfully.

There is a deep desire in everyone to commit suicide for the simple reason, that life seems to be meaningless.

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

Chess has this in common with making poetry; that the desire for it comes upon the amateur in gusts.

Existence cannot go wrong. If it does not fulfill our desires, that simply means our desires were wrong.

There is not a woman born who desires to eat the bread of dependence, no matter whether it be from the hand of father, husband, or brother; for anyone who does so eat her bread places herself in the power of the person from whom she takes it.

I believe it is important that we Japanese write a constitution for ourselves that would reflect the shape of the country we consider desirable in the 21st century.

Death is a release from the impressions of the senses, and from desires that make us their puppets, and from the vagaries of the mind, and from the hard service of the flesh.

From the deepest desires often come the deadliest hate.