Strong as our passions are, they may be starved into submission, and conquered without being killed.

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.

Everything in Italy that is particularly elegant and grand borders upon insanity and absurdity or at least is reminiscent of childhood.

Stillness is training for action.

Its all about finding the right note at the right place and knowing when to leave well enough alone. And that's a lifelong quest.

Every man in Ingary is scared stiff of her. You ought to know how that feels, Sophie dear.

If a man never contradicts himself, the reason must be that he virtually never says anything at all.

Nature has no reverence towards life. Nature treats life as though it were the most valueless thing in the world.... Nature does not act by purposes.

Read about the history of the place that we live in and stop letting corporate news tell lies to your children

We read fine things but never feel them to the full until we have gone the same steps as the author.

Salvation was universally considered to be much more becoming in women than in men.

How is it possible to sayan unkind or irreverential word of Rome? The city of all time, and of all the world!