The science of legislation is like that of medicine in one respect: that it is far more easy to point out what will do harm than what will do good.

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.

A loss may be sometimes a gain.

Talent, just like gold or any other precious commodity is subject to the same demand & supply economics

You know why I got involved in politics? The government is now a majority partner in my life. I am now a minority partner in my own life.

The Present is the womb of the future. A greater future happiness can be had only by investing in the present correctly. Look after the present and the future will look after itself.

... we have so many voices in us, how do we know which ones to obey?

The worst thing you can do is to sit and brood and feel sorry for yourself. Nor should you feel wrong about doing this, since all of us do from time to time.

I love big ensemble shows where there are a lot of things going on and you have to really pay attention because there's a lot of nuanced work and universal themes are being explored.

We are, as a species, addicted to story. Even when the body goes to sleep, the mind stays up all night, telling itself stories.

I am the rest between two notes which are somehow always in discord.

When Donald Trump says women should be punished or Mexicans are rapists and criminals or John McCain's not a hero, he is showing you who he is.