Quotes to inspire and reflect

Ignorance is not, not knowing something. It is knowing what isn't so.

Drawing on my fine command of language, I said nothing.

The more things are forbidden, the more popular they become.

History never repeats itself; at best it sometimes rhymes.

Every time you stop a school, you will have to build a jail. What you gain at one end you lose at the other. It's like feeding a dog on his own tail. It won't fatten the dog.

The difference between the right word and the almost right word is the difference between lightning and a lightning bug .

Everything has its limit - iron ore cannot be educated into gold.

Adam was but human—this explains it all. He did not want the apple for the apple's sake, he wanted it only because it was forbidden. The mistake was in not forbidding the serpent; then he would have eaten the serpent.

Civilization is a limitless multiplication of unnecessary necessities.

In Paris they just simply opened their eyes and stared when we spoke to them in French! We never did succeed in making those idiots understand their own language.

Never refuse to do a kindness unless the act would work great injury to yourself, and never refuse to take a drink - under any circumstances.

If we learned to walk and talk the way we learn to read and write, everyone would limp and stutter .

The Bible has noble poetry in it... and some good morals and a wealth of obscenity, and upwards of a thousand lies.

Books are for people who wish they were somewhere else.

It ain't those parts of the Bible that I can't understand that bother me, it is the parts that I do understand.

What a wee little part of a person's life are his acts and his words! His real life is led in his head, and is known to none but himself.

I simply can´t resist a cat, particularly a purring one. They are the cleanest, cunningest, and most intelligent things I know, outside of the girl you love, of course .

Love heightens all senses - except the common.

It is curious that physical courage should be so common in the world and moral courage so rare.

If it's your job to eat a frog, it's best to do it first thing in the morning. And If it's your job to eat two frogs, it's best to eat the biggest one first.

The good Lord didn't create anything without a purpose, but the fly comes close.

Be good and you will be lonely.

It is by the goodness of God that in our country we have those three unspeakably precious things: freedom of speech, freedom of conscience, and the prudence never to practice either of them.

Vote: The only commodity that is peddle able without a license.

A circle is a round straight line with a hole in the middle.

I didn't have time to write a short letter, so I wrote a long one instead.

There has been only one Christian. They caught and crucified him-early.

Action speaks louder than words but not nearly as often.

What would men be without women? Scarce, sir...mighty scarce.

It's easy to make friends, but hard to get rid of them.

Life would be infinitely happier if we could only be born at the age of eighty and gradually approach eighteen .

Damn these human beings; if I had invented them I would go hide my head in a bag.

It's not the size of the dog in the fight, it's the size of the fight in the dog.

It's good sportsmanship to not pick up lost golf balls while they are still rolling.

When angry, count to four; when very angry, swear.

The finest clothing made is a person's own skin, but, of course, society demands something more than this .

Of the delights of this world man cares most for sexual intercourse.

I am pushing sixty. That is enough exercise for me.

Last week, I stated this woman was the ugliest woman I had ever seen. I have since been visited by her sister, and now wish to withdraw that statement.

The history of our race, and each individual’s experience, are sown thick with evidence that a truth is not hard to kill and that a lie told well is immortal.

I notice that you use plain, simple language, short words and brief sentences. That is the way to write English - it is the modern way and the best way. Stick to it; don't let fluff and flowers and verbosity creep in.

Clothes make the man. Naked people have little or no influence on society.

Distance lends enchantment to the view .

Supposing is good, but finding out is better.

It was a place of sin, loose women, whiskey and gambling. It was no place for a good Presbyterian, and I did not long remain one.

Progressive improvement beats delayed perfection.

I thoroughly disapprove of duels. If a man should challenge me, I would take him kindly and forgivingly by the hand and lead him to a quiet place and kill him.

The trouble with most of us is that we know too much that ain't so.