Quotes
Quotes to inspire and reflect
To say that a man is vain means merely that he is pleased with the effect he produces on other people. A conceited man is satisfied with the effect he produces on himself.
12
There has never been a poet or orator who thought another better than himself.
19
Why do men seek honour? Surely in order to confirm the favourable opinion they have formed of themselves.
8
A mask tells us more than a face.
8
The bad are frequently good enough to let you see how bad they are, but the good as frequently endeavor to get between you and themselves.
11
Woe to him who doesn’t know how to wear his mask, be he king or Pope!
22
Talking about oneself can also be a means to conceal oneself.
8
The surest way of concealing from others the boundaries of one’s own knowledge is not to overstep them.
25
A man had rather have a hundred lies told of him than one truth which he does not wish should be told.
10
It is most absurdly said, in popular language, of any man, that he is disguised in liquor; for, on the contrary, most men are disguised by sobriety.
17
They must needs go whom the Devil drives.
17
There is nothing that gives more assurance than a mask.
19
Some of my colleagues who are criticized today for lack of forthright principles—or who are looked upon with scorn as compromising “politicians”—are simply engaged in the fine art of conciliating, balancing and interpreting the forces and factions of public opinion, an art essential to keeping our nation united and enabling our Government to function.
11
If one could recover the uncompromising spirit of one’s youth, one’s greatest indignation would be for what one has become.
15
Compromise, n. Such an adjustment of conflicting interests as gives each adversary the satisfaction of thinking he has got what he ought not to have, and is deprived of nothing except what was justly his due.
10
Nothing is so aggravating as calmness. There is something positively brutal about the good temper of most modern men.
12
Ah, now-a-days we are all of us so hard up, that the only pleasant things to pay are compliments. They’re the only things we can pay.
9
Everyone knows that in most people’s estimation, to do anything cooly is to do it genteelly.
15
To make wail and lament for one’s ill fortune, when one will win a tear from the audience, is well worthwhile.
17
Much compliance, much craft.
13
The path is smooth that leadeth on to danger.
10
Complacency is the enemy of study. We cannot really learn anything until we rid ourselves of complacency.
28
If happiness in self-content is placed, / The wise are wretched, and fools only blessed.
21
The form most contradictory to Human life that can appear among the human species is the “self-satisfied man.”
19
Comfort, n. A state of mind produced by contemplation of a neighbor’s uneasiness.
7
We learn not for life but for the debating-room.
9
Man is a gaming animal. He must be always trying to get the better in something or other.
20
Potter is potter’s enemy, and craftsman is craftsman’s / rival; tramp is jealous of tramp, and singer of singer.
18
He may well win the race that runs by himself.
7
When two souls compose a single song, / The muse fans / Livid wrath before long.
13
Comparison, more than reality, makes men happy or wretched.
9
Instead of comparing our lot with that of those who are more fortunate than we are, we should com
17
It is surprising how many great men and women a small house will contain.
8
The American has dwindled into an Odd Fellow,—one who may be known by the development of his organ of gregariousness.
10
An ancient father says that a dog we know is better company than a man whose language we do not understand.
11
At the heart of our friendly or purely social relations, there lurks a hostility momentarily cured but recurring by fits and starts.
19
No man is much pleased with a companion who does not increase, in some respect, his fondness of himself.
11
To be social is to be forgiving.
27
How many times go we to comedies, to masques, to places of great and noble resort, nay even to church only to see the company?
12
No man can have society upon his own terms. If he seek it, he must serve it too.
7
What is the odds so long as the fire of soul is kindled at the taper of conviviality, and the wing of friendship never moults a feather?
7
Mankind has become so much one family that we cannot insure our own prosperity except by insuring that of everyone else. If you wish to be happy yourself, you must resign yourself to seeing others also happy.
14
Your own safety is at stake when your neighbor’s wall is ablaze.
32
Communism is the corruption of a dream of justice.
24
The color of communism was not red but gray.
17
The objection to a Communist always resolves itself into the fact that he is not a gentleman.
13
We Communists are like seeds and the people are like the soil. Wherever we go, we must unite with the people, take root and blossom among them.
33
Communism has sometimes succeeded as a scavenger, but never as a leader. It has never come to power in any country that was not disrupted by war or internal corruption or both.
16