In large States public education will always be extremely mediocre, for the same reason that in large kitchens the cooking is at best only mediocre.

There is not enough love and goodness in the world to permit giving any of it away to imaginary beings.

One thing a man must have: either a naturally light disposition or a disposition lightened by art and knowledge.

A man far oftener appears to have a decided character from persistently following his temperament than from persistently following his principles.

As soon as a religion comes to dominate it has as its opponents all those who would have been its first disciples.

No one dies of fatal truths nowadays: there are too many antidotes.

Most people are far too much occupied with themselves to be malicious.

We set no special value on the possession of a virtue until we percieve that it is entirely lacking in our adversary.

Our crime against criminals lies in the fact that we treat them like rascals.

The more thoroughly a person understands life, the less he will mock, though in the end he might still mock the "thoroughness of his understanding.

None of the people have any real interest in a science, who only begin to be enthusiastic about it when they themselves have made discoveries in it.

A new doctor had been sent for, Lazzaro of Pavia, who had administered to Lorenzo a pulverized mixture of diamonds and pearls. This hitherto infallible medicine had failed to help.

the silence of God is God.

Give me a number between one and ten.”“Two.”“Forget that, then. Between five and ten.”“Seven.”“That’s how many times you’re coming before sunrise...

Finally, is not liberty the restricting of the law only to its rational sphere of organizing the right of the individual to lawful self-defense; of punishing injustice?

I'm a layperson. I barely got out of high school. I have no business telling people what to do or my big philosophy on life. I'm certainly not going to write any sort of memoir.

I have noticed that there is no dissatisfaction like that of the rich. Feed a man, clothe him, put him in a good house, and he will die of despair.

words can never get at the truth.

His [Donald Trump] name is on everything. He is a celebrity. But he is not a governor. He has never run government. He is a business executive.

Of the demonstrably wise there are but two: those who commit suicide, & those who keep their reasoning faculties atrophied with drink.

Novels so often provide an anodyne and not an antidote, glide one into torpid slumbers instead of rousing one with a burning brand.