Everything I've ever done was out of fear of being mediocre.

When Fortune flatters, she does it to betray.

Young men think old men are fools, but old men know young men are fools.

Hast thou attempted greatnesse? Then go on; Back-turning slackens resolution.

Facts do not "speak for themselves." They speak for or against competing theories. Facts divorced from theories or visions are mere isolated curiosities.

The ability of writers to imagine what is not the self, to familiarize the strange and mystify the familiar, is the test of their power.

He that knows himself, knows others; and he that is ignorant of himself, could not write a very profound lecture on other men's heads.

The coward calls the brave man rash, the rash man calls him a coward.

In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.

Most plans are just inaccurate predictions.

A man has to live with himself, and he should see to it that he always has good company.

I always remember that I have everything I need to enjoy my here and now, unless I am letting my consciousness be dominated by demands and expectations based on the dead past or the imagined future.

I never let my subject get in the way of what I want to talk about.

The best way to keep your kids out of hot water is to put some dishes in it.

Whence are thy beams, O sun! thy everlasting light? Thou comest forth, in thy awful beauty; the stars hide themselves in the sky; the moon, cold and pale, sinks in the western waves. But thou, thyself, movest alone.

Find your horse. Discover the direction the horse is going. Ride the horse in that direction.

Old age isn't so bad when you consider the alternatives.

Suspicions which may be unjust need not be stated.

Thus when a barber and collier fight, The barber beats the luckless collier--white; The dusty collier heaves his ponderous sack, And, big with vengeance, beats the barber--black. In comes the brick-dust man, with grime o'er spread, And beats the collier and the barber--red; Black, red, and white, in various clouds are toss'd, And in the dust they raise the combatants are lost.

Wisdom begins in wonder.