For what are the triumphs of war, planned by ambition, executed by violence, and consummated by devastation? The means are the sacrifice of many, the end, the bloated aggrandizement of the few.

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.

Have hope. Though clouds environs now And gladness hides her face in scorn Put thou the shadow from thy brow- No night but hath its morn.

On Earth, men and women are taking the same risks. Why shouldn't we be taking the same risks in space?

A louse in the locks of literature.

Speech is the representation of the mind, and writing is the representation of speech.

Calamity was ordained for man.

There's nothing I'm embarrassed about

I don't build a house without predicting the end of the present social order.

You realize how much fun we did have, with no money at all. We'd stay in peoples' homes in Tangiers. When you're young, you invite yourself.

What I want people to take from this is that it isn't simple. People judge you, people tell you what you should do. You do the best you can.

My ultimate fantasy is to entice a man to my bedroom, put a gun to his head and say, 'Make babies or die'.