The vulgar only laugh, but never smile; whereas well-bred people often smile, but seldom laugh.

As fathers commonly go, it is seldom a misfortune to be fatherless; and considering the general run of sons, as seldom a misfortune to be childless.

The mere brute pleasure of reading - the sort of pleasure a cow must have in grazing.

If we do not plant knowledge when young, it will give us no shade when we are old.

Never put off till tomorrow what you can do today.

Being pretty on the inside means you don't hit your brother and you eat all your peas - that's what my grandma taught me.

Modesty is the only sure bait when you angle for praise.

Whatever is worth doing at all is worth doing well.

You must look into people, as well as at them.

A man's own good breeding is the best security against other people's ill manners.

Know the true value of time; snatch, seize, and enjoy every moment of it. No idleness, no laziness, no procrastination: never put off till tomorrow what you can do today.

The feeling one has no time to get anything done provides the pressure that guarantees one does get some things done.

How naive and foolish the young are to imagine that they understand the loneliness of great age, the outliving of your contemporaries, anyone to whom your century of memory might make any sense.

I want to see peace in the country.

I'm in the kitchen and I'm not walking out.

In my madness I see your face in mine.

An egocentric pessimist is a person who thinks he hasn't changed, but that other people are behaving worse than before.

I told them not to worry about it, since we were going to play indoors.

Courtesy is a small act but it packs a mighty wallop.

I'm pretty intentional about being highly invested in my kids' lives.

I also feel like it's the right of the people hearing them to have their own interpretations of what these songs mean. Sometimes people will see things that I don't see.