Greatness, with private men Esteem'd a blessing, is to me a curse; And we, whom, for our high births, they conclude The happy freemen, are the only slaves. Happy the golden mean!

To doubt is worse than to have lost; And to despair is but to antedate those miseries that must fall on us.

A willing mind makes a hard journey easy.

Malice scorned, puts out itself; but argued, give a kind of credit to a false accusation.

True dignity is never gained by place, and never lost when honors are withdrawn.

Be wise; soar not too high to fall; but stoop to rise.

It is true fortitude to stand firm against All shocks of fate, when cowards faint and die In fear to suffer more calamity.

How sweetly sounds the voice of a good woman! It is so seldom heard that, when it speaks,it ravishes all senses.

Giants in Their promises, but those obtained, weak pigmies In their performance.

He is not valiant that dares lie; but he that boldly bears calamity.

Thou art figured blind, and yet we borrow our best sight from thee.

Remember, crowd doesn't care about common sense.

And how am I to face the odds Of man's bedevilment and God's? I, a stranger and afraid In a world I never made.

Having lost people when they were young, you feel intimately acquainted with mortality, I guess. Though I procrastinate worse than anybody.

The American people will not tolerate a clean increase in the debt limit.

You yourself are participating in the evil, or you are not alive. Whatever you do is evil for somebody. This is one of the ironies of the whole creation.

Physical violence is the basis of authority.

There's no expert on this planet who says that the government telling people what to do actually does any good with this issue, this is going to require an effort on everyone's part.

To a father who loves his children victor has no charms. When the heart speaks, glory itself is an illusion.

As with Three Mile Island, the hysteria of the media and the political class over the Deepwater spill is likely to lead to increased risk and adverse environmental tradeoffs.

Privacy and loneliness were the traditional luxuries accorded to a skipper.