Grief is not in the nature of things, but in opinion.

Politicians are not born; they are excreted.

Poor is the nation that has no heroes, but poorer still is the nation that having heroes, fails to remember and honor them.

It is the peculiar quality of a fool to perceive the faults of others and to forget his own.

Read at every wait; read at all hours; read within leisure; read in times of labor; read as one goes in; read as one goest out. The task of the educated mind is simply put: read to lead.

We learn nothing from history except that we learn nothing from history.

It is not enough to acquire wisdom, it is necessary to employ it.

Times are bad. Children no longer obey their parents, and everyone is writing a book.

Nothing is more unreliable than the populace, nothing more obscure than human intentions, nothing more deceptive than the whole electoral system.

To be ignorant of what occurred before you were born is to remain always a child.

If you have a garden and a library, you have everything you need.

Wisdom is not in intelligence but in simplicity.

Evil is always possible. And goodness is eternally difficult.

I would rather walk with God in the dark than go alone in the light.

Most folks are about as happy as they make up their minds to be.

My heart was broken and my head was just barely inhabitable

I fear very much for our kids, for low income people and for seniors.

The tongue like a sharp knife ... Kills without drawing blood.

AIDS and malaria and TB are national security issues. A worldwide program to get a start on dealing with these issues would cost about $25 billion... It's, what, a few months in Iraq.

The things that are the most valuable are often the ones you don't even know exist. -- Xavier, The Gatekeeper

Funnily enough, it is the subject one dreads talking about at length one ends up talking about at length, often without the slightest provocation.