Quotes to inspire and reflect

Tis the good reader that makes the good book.

You despise books; you whose lives are absorbed in the vanities of ambition, the pursuit of pleasure or indolence; but remember that all the known world, excepting only savage nations, is governed by books.

Without words, without writing and without books there would be no history, there could be no concept of humanity.

The price good men pay for indifference to public affairs is to be ruled by evil men.

It is not enough to help the feeble up, but to support him after. William Shakespeare #7891 Whoever is open, loyal, true; of humane and affable demeanor; honorable himself, and in his judgement of others; faithful to his word as to law, and faithful alike to God and man. such a man is a true gentleman.

A weak man has doubts before a decision, a strong man has them afterwards.

The history of the human race, viewed as a whole may be regarded as the realization of a hidden plan of nature to bring about a political constitution, internally, and for this purpose, also externally perfect, as the only state in which all the capacities implanted by her in mankind can be fully developed.

It is an error to imagine that evolution signifies a constant tendency to increased perfection. That process undoubtedly involves a constant remodeling of the organism in adaptation to new conditions; but it depends on the nature of those conditions whether the directions of the modifications effected shall be upward or downward. Thomas H.

Fashion is the science of appearances, and it inspires one with the desire to seem rather than to be.

The soul of this man is in his clothes.

Perfection of moral virtue does not wholly take away the passions, but regulates them.

Experience teaches only the teachable.

In the state of nature...all men are born equal, but they cannot continue in this equality. Society makes them lose it, and they recover it only by the protection of the law.

There are some duties we owe even to those who have wronged us. There is, after all, a limit to retribution and punishment.

Let us have a care not to disclose our hearts to those who shut up theirs against us.

We are obliged to respect, defend and maintain the common bonds of union and fellowship that exist among all members of the human race.

Pity is the virtue of the law, and none but tyrants use it cruelly.

Only one absolute certainty is possible to man, namely that at any given moment the feeling which he has exists. Thomas H.

The memory should be specially taxed in youth, since it is then that it is strongest and most tenacious. But in choosing the things that should be committed to memory the utmost care and forethought must be exercised; as lessons well learnt in youth are never forgotten.

Neither can embellishments of language be found without arrangement and expression of thoughts, nor can thoughts be made to shine without the light of language.

Ignorance gives one a large range of probabilities.

There is no greater mistake than the hasty conclusion that opinions are worthless because they are badly argued. Thomas H.

That there should one Man die ignorant who had capacity for Knowledge, this I call a tragedy.

There are many things of which a wise man might wish to be ignorant.

To give a satisfactory decision as to the truth it is necessary to be rather an arbitrator than a party to the dispute.

He who tells a lie is not sensible of how great a task he undertakes; for he must be forced to invent twenty more to maintain that one.

Knowledge, if it does not determine action, is dead to us.

There is no discipline in the world so severe as the discipline of experience subjected to the tests of intelligent development and direction.

So it is with minds. Unless you keep them busy with some definite subject that will bridle and control them, they throw themselves in disorder hither and yon in the vague field of imagination. ..And there is no mad or idle fancy that they do no bring forth in the agitation.

The stream of thought flows on; but most of its segments fall into the bottomless abyss of oblivion. Of some, no memory survives the instant of their passage. Of others, it is confined to a few moments, hours or days. Others, again, leave vestiges which are indestructible, and by means of which they may be recalled as long as life endures.

Virtue and genuine graces in themselves speak what no words can utter.

In so far as the mind is stronger than the body, so are the ills contracted by the mind more severe than those contracted by the body.

As soon as any man says of the affairs of the State "What does it matter to me?" the State may be given up for lost.

To be feared is to fear: no one has been able to strike terror into others and at the same time enjoy peace of mind.

No beast is more savage than man when possessed with power answerable to his rage.

Where the speech is corrupted, the mind is also.

Opinion is ultimately determined by the feelings, and not by the intellect.

Let me not be understood as saying that there are no bad laws, nor that grievances may not arise for the redress of which no legal provisions have been made. I mean to say no such thing. But I do mean to say that although bad laws, if they exist, should be repealed as soon as possible, still, while they continue in force, for the sake of example they should be religiously observed.

Study the past if you would define the future.

A person may cause evil to others not only by his actions but by his inaction, and in either case he is justly accountable to them for the injury.

With most men, unbelief in one thing springs from blind belief in another.

We should often be ashamed of our finest actions if the world understood our motives.

He only employs his passion who can make no use of his reason.

There is a measure in everything. There are fixed limits beyond which and short of which right cannot find a resting place.

Where there is much desire to learn, there of necessity will be much arguing, much writing, many opinions; for opinions in good men is but knowledge in the making.

The worst solitude is to be destitute of sincere friendship.

A thing is not proved just because no one has ever questioned it. What has never been gone into impartially has never been properly gone into. Hence skepticism is the first step toward truth. It must be applied generally, because it is the touchstone.

The worst derangement of the spirit is to believe things because we want them to be so, not because we have seen them for what they are.