History distinguishes what is accidental and transitory in human nature from what is essential and immutable.

The measure of a man's real character is what he would do if he knew he would never be found out.

To sum up the whole, we should say that the aim of the Platonic philosophy was to exalt man into a god.

It is possible to be below flattery as well as above it. One who trusts nobody will not trust sycophants. One who does not value real glory will not value its counterfeit.

Finesse is the best adaptation of means to circumstances.

People crushed by law have no hopes but from power. If laws are their enemies, they will be enemies to laws.

I would rather be poor in a cottage full of books than a king without the desire to read.

The Puritan hated bear-baiting, not because it gave pain to the bear, but because it gave pleasure to the spectators.

Ye diners out from whom we guard our spoons.

Nothing is so galling to a people not broken in from birth as a paternal, or, in other words, a meddling government, a government which tells them what to read, and say, and eat, and drink and wear.

Your Constitution is all sail and no anchor.

When shame becomes a management style, engagement dies. When failure is not an option we can forget about learning, creativity, and innovation .

The object of pure physics is the unfolding of the laws of the intelligible world the object of pure mathematics that of unfolding the laws of human intelligence.

The fifties - they seem to have taken place on a sunny afternoon that asked nothing of you except a drifting belief in the moment and its power to satisfy.

Every time someone opens up to me, it just feels like a gift they're giving me, because it's a chance to experience another human being.

Doctors are busy playing God when so few of us have the qualifications. And besides, the job is taken.

There are some good people in it, but the orchestra as a whole is equivalent to a gang bent on destruction.

Golf is my boyfriend right now.

The road to freedom is bordered with sunflowers.

Don't expect anyone else to support you. Maybe you'll have a trust fund. Maybe you'll have a wealthy spouse. But you never know when either of them might run out.

When you try to help people become a better person, you're going to have to find out what's really going in their world.