Exaggeration is a prodigality of the judgment which shows the narrowness of one's knowledge or one's taste.

The wise man does at once what the fool does finally.

Dreams will get you nowhere, a good kick in the pants will take you a long way.

He that can live alone resembles the brute beast in nothing, the sage in much, and God in everything.

It is better to sleep on things beforehand than lie awake about them afterwards.

Self-reflection is the school of wisdom.

The wise have a solid sense of silence and the ability to keep a storehouse of secrets. Their capacity and character are respected.

Know or listen to those who know.

To find one real friend in a lifetime is good fortune; to keep him is a blessing.

There are friendships merely for pleasure, some for the exchange of ideas. Rarest are those friends of one's inmost self.

A single lie destroys a whole reputation for integrity.

I am tired of the sickening sight of the battlefield with its mangled corpses & poor suffering wounded. Victory has no charms for men when purchased at such cost.

The white boys knew they had my attention now, but hesitated -- that's the trouble with being a racist in the white heartlands, you don't get a lot of practical experience.

What a strange power there is in clothing.

Most commanders wanted as many good sources of information as possible. MacArthur was focused on limiting and controlling his sources of intelligence.

When you're given something new, it's always exciting 'cause you're the first one to do it. You're not having to live up to any expectations, or be compared to anyone who's ever done it before.

I'm married, which means that instead of occasionally wondering about men from afar, I actually live with one and can be constantly astounded by the strange male brain.

Recording happiness made it last longer, we felt, and recording sorrow dramatized it and took away its bitterness; and often we settled some problem which beset us even while we wrote about it.

I thought it was very elegant, a wonderful opening. The vegans seemed so surprised-God knows what they get to eat.

By then I was in Brooklyn and drank my way through that summer. I stopped when I got sick of that and got a job at the Strand bookstore, which was a little better than the tax job.

I was always proud about being from Texas and, you know, maybe that was part of fearlessness. I love the fact that Texas is so big, but you don't feel small because of that.