At the best, sarcasms, bitter irony, scathing wit, are a sort of swordplay of the mind. You pink your adversary, and he is forthwith dead; and then you deserve to be hung for it.

False friends are like our shadow, keeping close to us while we walk in the sunshine, but leaving us the instant we cross into the shade.

Doubt whom you will, but never yourself.

Our first and last love is self-love.

The scope of an intellect is not to be measured with a tape-string, or a character deciphered from the shape or length of a nose.

It is the passion that is in a kiss that gives to it its sweetness; it is the affection in a kiss that sanctifies it.

We fear things in proportion to our ignorance of them.

The opinions of the misanthropical rest upon this very partial basis, that they adopt the bad faith of a few as evidence of the worthlessness of all.

The lively and mercurial are as open books, with the leaves turned down at the notable passages. Their souls sit at the windows of their eyes, seeing and to be seen.

Tears are nature's lotion for the eyes. The eyes see better for being washed by them.

The passions are like fire, useful in a thousand ways and dangerous only in one, through their excess.

For what avail the plough or sail Or land or life if freedom fail?

Being in a ship is being in a jail, with the chance of being drowned.

I believe the most important aspect of Medicare is not the structure of the program but the guarantee to all Americans that they will have high quality health care as they get older.

The world is my country. Science my religion.

He who does not lie does not know what truth is.

I honestly never had the biological need to reproduce until I met my husband. But by the same token, even if we were unsuccessful, we were totally okay with adopting.

People like it when they understand something that they previously thought they couldn't understand. It's a sense of empowerment.

Those who relish the study of character may profit by the reading of good works of fiction, the product of well-established authors.

Paint, not the thing but the effect which it produces.

It's important to use executive orders. Every president since Washington has.