Books are not men and yet they stay alive.

Gratitude is the fairest blossom which springs from the soul.

We should not judge people by their peak of excellence; but by the distance they have traveled from the point where they started.

The Church is not a gallery for the exhibition of eminent Christians, but a school for the education of imperfect ones.

Some men are like pyramids, which are very broad where they touch the ground, but grow narrow as they reach the sky.

As for marigolds, poppies, hollyhocks, and valorous sunflowers, we shall never have a garden without them, both for their own sake, and for the sake of old-fashioned folks, who used to love them.

A person without a sense of humor is like a wagon without springs. It's jolted by every pebble on the road.

The thistle is a prince. Let any man that has an eye for beauty take a view of the whole plant, and where will he see a more expressive grace and symmetry; and where is there a more kingly flower?

Hold yourself responsible for a higher standard than anybody expects of you. Never excuse yourself.

He is rich or poor according to what he is, not according to what he has.

Every tomorrow has two handles. We can take hold of it with the handle of anxiety or the handle of faith.

To an unmoored, middle-aged man like myself, it was heart-breaking. That’s all right. I like to have my heart broken.

I play tennis for a living even though I hate tennis, hate it with a dark and secret passion and always have.

I am very traditional as a man. I am not modern and never have been. I think I was born 50 years of age and out of my time.

I just dress up what the Good Lord provides.

Man's biological weakness is the condition of human culture.

Ambition must be made to counteract ambition.

When I was a kid, my parents had a 900-pound television on top of a TV tray. My dad's theory was, 'Let him pull it over his head a few times, he'll learn.'

Too great a preoccupation with motives (especially one's own motive) is liable to lead to too little concern for consequences.

Men are very easy to get along with- they just want to come home to something pleasant.

Democracy is like a raft: It won't sink, but you will always have your feet wet.