Afflictions sent by providence melt the constancy of the noble minded, but confirm the obduracy of the vile, as the same furnace that liquefies the gold, hardens the clay Charles Caleb Colton.

True friendship is like sound health; the value of it is seldom known until it is lost.

Nothing more completely baffles one who is full of trick and duplicity himself, than straight forward and simple integrity in another.

The soundest argument will produce no more conviction in an empty head than the most superficial declamation; as a feather and a guinea fall with equal velocity in a vacuum.

The art of declamation has been sinking in value from the moment that speakers were foolish enough to publish, and hearers wise enough to read.

None are so fond of secrets as those who do not mean to keep them; such persons covet secrets as a spendthrift covets money, for the purpose of circulation.

Much may be done in those little shreds and patches of time which every day produces, and which most men throw away.

Let those who would affect singularity with success first determine to be very virtuous, and they will be sure to be very singular.

Atheism is a system which can communicate neither warmth nor illumination, except from those fagots which your mistaken zeal has lighted up for its destruction.

Deliberate with caution, but act with decision and yield with graciousness, or oppose with firmness.

The study of mathematics, like the Nile, begins in minuteness but ends in magnificence.

When you truly start to care about someone you become vulnerable to all sorts of things.

Can’t this thing go any faster?” Thalia demanded.Zoe glared at her. “I cannot control traffic.”You both sound like my mother, ” I said.Shut up!” they both said in union.

A man who fights you as he does is no better than an opportunist and no worse than a thug.

And it sort of jogged a memory of something that I read at school and I read it, and I thought God this is it. So you never can tell. I could find something this afternoon.

From a chollerick man withdraw a little; from him that saies nothing, for ever. [From a choleric man withdraw a little; from him that says nothing, for ever.]

Every movie I’ve made is different, but it’s because I’m different. I’m not the same person I was in 1992 or 1999.

She hoped to be wise and reasonable in time; but alas! Alas! She must confess to herself that she was not wise yet.

The word "politics" comes from the Greek politeia which had to do with the citizenry, not the government.

I don't know what the character is going to be. We sit down and we create a character, and all of the characters in all of my films are made like that.

There is nothing more alone than being in a car at night in the rain.