Wisdom and understanding are synonymous words; they consist of two propositions, which are not distinct in sense, but one and the same thing variously expressed.

Ignorance and inconsideration are the two great causes of the ruin of mankind.

A good word is an easy obligation; but not to speak ill requires only our silence, which costs us nothing.

Of all parts of wisdom the practice is the best.

Was ever any wicked man free from the stings of a guilty conscience?

The art of using deceit and cunning grow continually weaker and less effective to the user.

Sincerity is to speak as we think, to do as we pretend and profess, to perform and make good what we promise, and really to be what we would seem and appear to be.

Our belief or disbelief of a thing does not alter the nature of the thing.

Integrity gains strength by use.

Convulsive anger storms at large; or pale And silent, settles into full revenge.

Malice and hatred are very fretting and vexatious, and apt to make our minds sore and uneasy; but he that can moderate these affections will find ease in his mind.

I took the volume to a table, opened its soft, ivory pages... and fell into it as into a pool during dry season.

He excused himself for a nap, and this day blended into his dreams like like years blended into a life, unseen but still felt, the line between memory and present always bleeding.

But men are funny about their wars, they act as if they own them, and perhaps they do, for I don't think women ever start them.

Life without a defined purpose is similar to a boat without a crew in the middle of the ocean.

To gain that which is worth having, it may be necessary to lose everything else.

Will 2015 ever be noted as the year Ebola was decisively downgraded from a lurid horror meme to just one of many commonly treatable diseases?

Miranda looked up at him through a haze of desire, her will consumed by a fierce crackling heat, just like the dry twigs of the old woman's fire.

In the absence of an effective general mythology, each of us has his private, unrecognized, rudimentary, yet secretly potent pantheon of dreams.

[My favorite thing about motherhood is] that it's made me grow into a woman finally, and I finally grew up, thank God.

When the lamp is shattered The light in the dust lies dead - When the cloud is scattered The rainbow's glory is shed.