Wars of opinion, as they have been the most destructive, are also the most disgraceful of conflicts.

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.

We never see other people anyway, only the monsters we make of them.

It's not about changing "them, " it's about healing YOU.

I was famous overnight. I went from nowhere to being really big.

People seem to think fighters are lovely people when they meet us. It's 'cause we don't have to prove anything.

I am not taking away the historical legacy, but it should not become a burden.

Extraordinary people visualize not what is possible or probable, but rather what is impossible. And by visualizing the impossible, they begin to see it as possible.

When action is needed, optimism, even of the mildly delusional variety, may be a good thing.

I cannot believe there is a god who punishes and rewards, for I see honest folk unlucky, and rogues unlucky.

If I thought there was some reason to be concerned about them, I wouldn't be sleeping in this house tonight. (When asked about continued presence of Soviet nuclear submarines along US coastlines)

Thou ever young, fresh, lov'd, and delicate wooer, whose blush doth thaw the consecrated snow