Modesty is the richest ornament of a woman ... the want of it is her greatest deformity.

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.

What we call 'normal' is a product of repression, denial, splitting, projection, introjection and other forms of destructive action on experience.

Every journey starts with fear.

There are no more excuses for leaving women out of the inner circles of power. Qualified women are everywhere. Women are ready for leadership they just need to be identified and asked.

Girls in my school were always prettier.

Give guilt - the gift that lasts forever.

Yeats, you need ten years in the library, but I have need of ten years in the wilderness.

The Irish say your trouble is their trouble and your joy their joy? I wish I could believe it; I am troubled, I'm dissatisfied, I'm Irish.

The main trouble with despair is that it is self-fulfilling.

Kindness-mere kindness-cannot tolerate suffering. Love can.

The summer movies are coming out. My advice: just stay home and burn a good book.