Silence at the proper season is wisdom, and better than any speech.

I don't need a friend who changes when I change and who nods when I nod; my shadow does that much better.

The mind is not a vessel to be filled but a fire to be kindled.

An imbalance between rich and poor is the oldest and most fatal ailment of all republics.

When Demosthenes was asked what was the first part of Oratory, he answered, "Action," and which was the second, he replied, "action," and which was the third, he still answered "Action.

Know how to listen, and you will profit even from those who talk badly.

The real destroyer of the liberties of the people is he who spreads among them bounties, donations and benefits.

Barba non facit philosophum

To make no mistakes is not in the power of man; but from their errors and mistakes the wise and good learn wisdom for the future.

Time is the wisest of all counselors.

No beast is more savage than man when possessed with power answerable to his rage.

The most valuable currency in life is compassion.

Strength in peace. Strength in love. Always.

Strange how complicated we can make things just to avoid showing what we feel!

I was appalled at the amount of study necessary in order to qualify in medicine, and gradually my desire was blunted by a keener - and secret - wish to become an actor.

It works better if your lead character is complex and interesting and not perfect.

Be tough in the way a blade of grass is: rooted, willing to lean, and at peace with what is around it.

We live in a time of excess - excess population, excess information.

The lesson we have yet to learn from dogs, that could sustain us, is that having no apprehension of the past or future is not limiting but liberating.

Of course the entire planet Earth consists of magma under us, and only the very inner-core is different.

This is emphatically an age of discoveries; but I will venture the assertion, that none but an American slaveholder could have discovered that a man born in a country was not a citizen of it.