Doubt whom you will, but never yourself.

A good thought is indeed a great boon, for which God is to be first thanked; next he who is the first to utter it, and then, in a lesser, but still in a considerable degree, the friend who is the first to quote it to us. Whoever adopts and circulates a just thought, participates in the merit that originated it.

In politics, merit is rewarded by the possessor being raised, like a target, to a position to be fired at.

Music is the fourth great material want, first food, then clothes, then shelter, then music.

Constant companionship is not enjoyable, any more than constant eating. We sit too long at the table of friendship, when we outsit our appetites for each other's thoughts.

There is a German proverb which says that Take-it-Easy and Live-Long are brothers.

The grandest of all laws is the law of progressive development. Under it, in the wide sweep of things, men grow wiser as they grow older, and societies better.