Liberty will not descend to a people; a people must raise themselves to liberty; it is a blessing that must be earned before it can be enjoyed.

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.

It is not a lack of love, but a lack of friendship that makes unhappy marriages.

Hopelessness is endless, the more you search for it, the more you find it

Love to me has meant different things at different junctures of my life. I'm not a hopeless romantic.

Anyone who believes the competitive spirit in America is dead has never been in a supermarket when the cashier opens another check-out line.

I've always been pretty good at remembering the details about certain things.

Ham with mustard is a meal of glory

It may surprise people to know that I advocate the reform of the United Nations, not its abolishment.

I'm always fearful. … Fear generates in you a huge energy. You can use it. When I feel that mounting fear, I think, 'Oh, yes, there it is!' It's like petrol.

I was very ill at ease with people in social situations, and I realized that if I photographed I wouldn't have to chat.

Acting is the work of two people - it's only possible when you have the complicity, the help, even the manipulation of a director.